The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award Shortlist Collection 2020 cover art

The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award Shortlist Collection 2020

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The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award Shortlist Collection 2020

By: Alexia Tolas, Niamh Campbell, Daniel O'Malley, Louise Kennedy, Namwali Serpell, Shawn Vestal, Tom Curry
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About this listen

This year's shortlist of six exceptional stories each take the listener on an intense and gripping journey into the human heart. With poise, precision, and a light-footed grace, they conjure dramatically different, starkly real worlds.

Hailing from Ireland, the United States and The Bahamas, the finalists of 2020 share stories on subjects as far apart as their settings, exploring among them romantic and marital discord, dark secrets, homelessness and even a high school football team; yet each one opens doors into its characters' lives in surprising and moving ways.

In another outstanding year for The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, dubbed 'the world's most prestigious short story prize' by LitHub, this shortlist bears powerful witness to the thrilling possibilities of the short story form.

©2020 Alexia Tolas, Niamh Campbell, Daniel O'Malley, Louise Kennedy, Namwali Serpell, Shawn Vestal (P)2020 Audible, Ltd. Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
Episodes
  • Teamwork by Shawn Vestal

    Teamwork by Shawn Vestal

     The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award Shortlist Collection 2020
    Sep 14 2020

    A player on a 1980s high school American football team recounts one disastrous season – on and off the field – with the team’s every moment charted by their emphatic, omnipotent, highly volatile coach. This energetic, evocative story is bittersweet, nostalgic, and incredibly funny.
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    28 mins
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  • Take It by Namwali Serpell

    Take It by Namwali Serpell

     The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award Shortlist Collection 2020
    Sep 14 2020

    In Berkeley, a homeless teenager stumbles across a college party where everyone has cast off their inhibitions – starting with their clothes. Intrigued by its unusualness, he finds himself drawn to an older girl, despite the hostility of her companions. This is an original, tense, funny and poignant story about the opportunities and risks that present themselves when the status quo shifts.
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    19 mins
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  • Sparing the Heather by Louise Kennedy

    Sparing the Heather by Louise Kennedy

     The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award Shortlist Collection 2020
    Sep 14 2020

    An unhappily married woman is having an affair with her English tenant in rural Ireland. When a social event brings them all together for the day, the ensuing tension sees not only the affair come close to being uncovered, but the truth of a darker, long-held secret – and the reason for the woman’s loathing of her husband. Set in the aftermath of The Troubles, this is a tightly-woven story of betrayal and secrets and their impact on family lives.
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    27 mins
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All stars
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Some enjoyable short stories in this collection. Simon and Teamwork were my favourites as they were the most visual IMO.

Enjoyable

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So bored with this collection, until the brilliant "Teamwork" came along and saved the day

Loved Teamwork

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I was hoping the 2020 collection would be better than the previous year’s, but I was wrong.

You start with a story where the narrator performs a pathetically poor, if not offensive, imitation of foreign accent.

Then comes a story that fails to engage you, whether that’s to the main character, events and every single of its elements. The reader’s voice on its own can out you to sleep. (Guess what... that story was the top finalist!!!)

Simon was the only story where the writer seemed to know the craft; it started interestingly and the narration was exquisite, but it ended in a “literary” manner.

Story number 4 was a long, boring and aimless narration while number 5 just included a bunch of “shocking” scenes and language and after that it was done!
As for the last short story... simply follows the legacy of the previous ones.

I’m surprised that most of these authors sent these “works” to a contest! This was the best they had to present!

Still, it was a free collection on Audible so I guess you get what you pay for.

Equally horrible to the previous year’s shortlist

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This collection is terrible, the writing is OK but it's filled with foul language and unpleasant characters.

Terrible Stories

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One story features Child neglect and perversion. Nuanced slavery. Should be flagged. Can't understand why this can be prize-winning

Foot washing story

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