Fifty Favorite Stories
Several Rules: (1) I have listed these stories in alphabetical order by the author’s last name, rather than in order of preference—though I have marked each of my ten favorites with an asterisk. (2) I have chosen no more than one story (or in a few cases one novella) per author. (3) I have tried to be honest, which is why there are so many contemporary English-language stories on this list, as well as so many stories by science fiction writers, magic realists, and assorted other fantasists. —Kevin Brockmeier, September 3, 2022
1. “Acts of Charity” by César Aira
2. “Tickets on Time (Extracts from the diary of Jules Flegmon)” by Marcel Aymé
3. “The Voices of Time” by J.G. Ballard (*)
4. “Gryphon” by Charles Baxter
5. “The Last Song of Sirit Byar” by Peter S. Beagle
6. “The Accordion Player” by John Berger (*)
7. “Three Versions of Judas” by Jorge Luis Borges
8. “The State of Grace” by Harold Brodkey (*)
9. “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler
10. “The Light-Years” by Italo Calvino (*)
11. “Do You Love Me?” by Peter Carey
12. “Sins and Virtues” by Jim Crace
13. “White Angel” by Michael Cunningham
14. “Pet Milk” by Stuart Dybek
15. “The Prophet from Jupiter” by Tony Earley (*)
16. “The Twenty-seventh Man” by Nathan Englander
17. “From the Fifteenth District” by Mavis Gallant
18. “The Torturer’s Wife” by Thomas Glave (*)
19. “Professor Berkowitz Stands on the Threshold” by Theodora Goss (*)
20. “Two Gentle People” by Graham Greene
21. “Monday” by Mark Helprin
22. “It Didn’t Bother Me” by Jeremy Jackson
23. “Emergency” by Denis Johnson
24. “Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor” by Franz Kafka
25. “The Joy and Melancholy Baseball Trivia Quiz” by Ken Kalfus
26. “The Dark Princess” by Richard Kennedy
27. “Bobcat” by Rebecca Lee
28. “Catskin” by Kelly Link
29. “The Briefcase” by Rebecca Makkai
30. “Disquisition on the Difficulty of Communicating with the Dead” by Giorgio Manganelli
31. “Sandkings” by George R. R. Martin
32. “Singular Pleasures” by Harry Mathews
33. “The Thistles in Sweden” by William Maxwell (*)
34. “The Next Thing” by Steven Millhauser
35. “The Cage” by Barbara Molinard
36. “Faith and Mountains” by Augusto Monterroso
37. “Hob’s Hog” by Alan Moore
38. “A Window” by Haruki Murakami
39. “Sugar Among the Chickens” by Lewis Nordan
40. “Reeling for the Empire” by Karen Russell
41. “The Baby” by David Rutschman
42. “Akhnilo” by James Salter
43. “Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz” by George Saunders
44. “The Scalehunter’s Beautiful Daughter” by Lucius Shepard
45. “A Visit from Mother and Daddy” by Walter Tevis
46. “The Death of Ivan Ilych” by Leo Tolstoy (*)
47. “Extracts from Adam’s Diary and Eve’s Diary” by Mark Twain
48. “Escapes” by Joy Williams (*)
49. “The Dreamed” by Robert McLiam Wilson
50. “The Private Lives of Trees” by Alejandro Zambra