Kitaab review of Flash Fiction International

by Vasika Udurawane

Flash Fiction International:
Very Short Stories from Around the World 

James Thomas (Editor), Robert Shapard (Editor), Christopher Merrill (Editor)

W W Norton & Company (Paperback)

April 2015 (288 pp)

The joy of reading an anthology is that one never knows what to expect. I certainly did not know what to expect when I received a copy of Flash Fiction International, but I ended up enjoying every minute of it.

The book has stories by eighty-six great writers from around the world, one story per writer. I had no clue what flash fiction was at first. However when I read through this wonderful selection of stories and authors I began to appreciate the beauty of the short story in what I take to be its purest and most stripped-to-basics form. Plenty of praise goes out to the editing team for making this selection.

For a start, the title of the book is strong and direct, as are the individual story captions.