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The Complete Short Stories

Volume 1

J G Ballard author Adam Thirlwell editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:HarperCollins Publishers

Published:4th Sep '06

Should be back in stock very soon

This paperback is available in another edition too:

The Complete Short Stories cover

Featuring ‘The Garden of Time’, the inspiration for the 2024 Met Gala

First in a two volume collection of short stories by the acclaimed author of ‘Empire of the Sun’, ‘Crash’ and ‘Super-Cannes’. The new edition is introduced by Adam Thirwell.

First in a two volume collection of short stories by the acclaimed author of ‘Empire of the Sun’, ‘Crash’ and ‘Super-Cannes’. The new edition is introduced by Adam Thirwell.

With eighteen novels over four decades – from ‘The Drowned World’ in 1962 to his final novel ‘Kingdom Come’ in 2006 – J.G. Ballard is known as one of Britain’s most celebrated and original novelists.

However, during his long career he was also a prolific writer of short stories; in fact, many people consider that he is at his best in the short-story format. These highly influential stories have appeared in magazines such as New Worlds, Amazing Stories and Interzone, and in several separate collections, including ‘The Terminal Beach’, ‘The Venus Hunters’, ‘Vermilion Sands’, ‘Low-Flying Aircraft’ and ‘Myths of the Near Future’.

Set out in the original order of publication and frequently the point of conception for ideas he further developed in his novels, these stories provide an unprecedented opportunity to see the imagination of one of Britain’s greatest writers at work. This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard’s works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including Robert Macfarlane, Iain Sinclair, James Lever and Ali Smith) and brand-new cover designs from the artist Stanley Donwood.

His story 'The Garden of Time', featured here in this volume, has inspired the 2024 Met Gala theme.

‘More than one thousand compelling pages from one of the most haunting, cogent and individual imaginations in contemporary literature’ William Boyd

‘A marvel … there is something a little shaming in reading Ballard: you have to face the fact that there exist writers with such fresh imaginations they can’t write five pages without stumbling on an alternate world’ Zadie Smith

‘Simply a master story writer – the maker of unforgettable artefacts in words’ Jonathan Lethem

‘Indispensable … probably the most original English writer of the last century’ China Miéville

ISBN: 9780007242290

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 50mm

Weight: 550g

784 pages