The short story, says Puliter Prize-winning writer Steven Millhauser, has powers the novel only dreams of. 'The novel is the Wal-Mart, the Incredible Hulk, the jumbo jet of literature,' he wrote in his brilliant essay, The Ambition of the Short Story. '[And yet] the short story apologises for nothing. It exults in its shortness. It wants to be shorter still. It wants to be a single word. If it could find that word, if it could utter that syllable, the entire universe would blaze up out of it with a roar. That is the outrageous ambition of the short story, that is its deepest faith, that is the greatness of its smallness.'
Soon after Britain went into lockdown, the BBC Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis tweeted: 'OK. An admission. I’m finding it really hard to read at the moment and I usually devour novels. Is anyone else?' The 6,000 likes she got suggests that, as we continue to readjust to life in the midst of a pandemic, many readers are finding it hard to concentrate on books we'd normally gobble up. Easing back in with some great short stories could be the answer.