Showing titles in Absurdist

In this amusing story we meet the character of Diego, a young man who is rejected by the girl of his dreams. In exile in the mountains to clear his head he meets Don Quixote and Sancho and joins up with them in a quest for adventure but soon enough he meets a new girl, who may replace the old one, and become the love of his life.

Der neue Roman nach dem Bestseller "Die Ladenhüterin" Der neue Roman von Japans Erfolgsautorin Sayaka Murata erzählt die Geschichte zweier Außenseiter, Natsuki und ihr Cousin Yu, die sich jung verlieben und gemeinsam gegen eine Welt verbünden, die ihnen beileibe nicht nur Gutes will. Im alten Farmhaus der Familie, in dem früher die Seidenraupen ihren Dienst verrichteten, sind sie glücklich, denn sie sind beieinander. 20 Jahre später geht Natsuki an diesen Ort zurück.

Perebius Peddler is an inventor in a land dead-set on never changing. But that won’t stop him… Perebius has heard of the mythical city of Paragon across the mountains. And he wants in. Unfortunately, the Duke of this dreadful realm doesn’t want his subjects leaving. To win his freedom, Perebius must conquer three trials. And even then, hope may just be beyond his grasp… But freedom is worth fighting for. And Perebius is ready for the trials. The Trials of Perebius Peddler is a satirical short story written like a fable, drawing on inspirations like Monty Python and the absurdity of ...

Her life is overdue, and tonight she has to pay. Rachel Dankworth finds her name on a library due date card. The fine? Her entire existence. “You shouldn’t be alive,” the card whispers at midnight. “You stole someone else’s story.” Nineteen years ago, Rachel survived falling through ice when she should have died. Now the Emberwick Library has come to collect—with interest. Text crawls beneath her skin like living tattoos. Her body flickers transparent at the edges. She’s being erased, word by word, paragraph by paragraph. “You’re nineteen years overdue,” warns Dexter, ...

For science teacher Baxter Plink, his grandmother’s funeral was already set to be a grim affair. But he never expected the deceased to wink at him. Or for his own navel to start glowing and projecting holographic replays of his most embarrassing potential deaths for the entire congregation to see. What begins as a personal quantum catastrophe quickly goes viral, becoming a global pandemic of "Quantum Embarrassment" where everyone's deepest regrets and unfulfilled dreams are broadcast from their bellies.

After decades of loyal service, Ma Daode, a corrupt and lecherous party official, has been appointed director of the China Dream Bureau, charged with promoting President Xi Jinping’s China Dream of national rejuvenation. But just as he is about to present his plan for a microchip that will be implanted into the brain of every citizen to replace all painful recollections with a collective dream of national supremacy, his sanity begins to unravel.

B. Rosenberger Rosenberg, neurotic and underappreciated film critic (failed academic, filmmaker, paramour, shoe salesman who sleeps in a sock drawer), stumbles upon a hitherto unseen film by an enigmatic outsider - a film he’s convinced will change his career trajectory and rock the world of cinema to its core. His hands on what is possibly the greatest movie ever made, a three-month-long stop-motion masterpiece that took its reclusive auteur 90 years to complete, B. knows that it is his mission to show it to the rest of humanity.

Welcome to the Fiction on the Web audiobook series, featuring a collection of short stories with a different theme for each volume. Lovingly curated by the owner of Fiction On The Web, Charlie Fish. Come and share in the joy and power of short stories. The theme of this volume is Kafkaesque. You've probably heard of Franz Kafka even if you haven't read his books. You might even recognize his nightmarishly absurdist style. This volume explores a Kafkaesque world that's full of surprises.

The book takes place during a transitional period in man’s history: white collar professionals, specifically lawyers, are being replaced by robots, and the legal system is being taken over by a secret group known as The Machine Commission in Support of Artificial Intelligence. Presented as a collection of Judge Daylek’s recent decisions on sexual harassment, wrongful death, pollution, human rights, and intellectual property law, the hyperbolic fact patterns and the Judge’s unorthodox style parody mankind’s self-deluding grandiosity and foretell the future we are creating.

בוקר אחד, באמצע החיים, מתעוררת נעמה נוימן למציאות חדשה. בעלה, אדם בריא ונמרץ, מדריך טיולים, מודיע לה שאינו יכול לקום מן המיטה. למן הפתיחה הזאת, המזכירה את פתיחת...

A real-life happily-ever-after wasn’t part of the deal… I never expected a plot twist like Alex Mitchell—the gorgeous billionaire hockey team owner who gets his thriller fix at my bookshop. He’s never been more than a stoic customer I’m casually crushing on—even if I’ve hoped he’s behind the love notes someone has been leaving in my shop. But when my brother’s debts land me in trouble, Alex comes to my rescue with a kiss that sends a message: I belong to him, and I’m off-limits. In return, I agree to be his fake fiancée to help him secure a business deal. The line ...

Clay Donovan thought dying was the end of his troubles, but fate isn’t done with him yet. Assigned as a temporary Death Walker, he makes one reckless decision—sparing the life of a social media influencer. Now, death is out of balance, and every life saved means another is lost. Now, something ancient and unforgiving is watching, waiting, and Clay is running out of time to fix his mistake before the cost becomes permanent.

Percy and Pigeon live in separate apartments on the fourteenth floor of that strange building on Thirteenth Street, the brown building with brown trim, elevator that squeaks, rooftop that's out-of-bounds, basement that's always locked, tenants that haven't seen a marriage in thirty-three years . . . . . . haven't seen a marriage in thirty-three years, until the marriage of Percy and Pigeon, that is. Will their marriage change things for the tenants of this building? Will the basement get breached? Might the rooftop be reached? Recommended only for those who've considered reading the Bible ...

The US state of Minnesota is known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes. So when Alexander and Alexandra Anderson decide to fill in their backyard lake, it unleashes a wave of emotion that shakes the town, the state, and eventually the nation itself. But all big things start as small things, and the story of the Alex Andersons of Edina, Minnesota, is no different. They are native Minnesotans (which means they are of Swedish descent), and they get married soon after college. Children do not arrive in the first few years, and as our two Alexes grow up, it starts to become quite clear that while the ...

“Fantastic!” —the actual Jeff Goldblum (for real) The essential companion for any fan of Jeff Goldblum, Hollywood’s most beloved and otherworldly icon. You like Jeff Goldblum. We like Jeff Goldblum. Helen McClory really likes Jeff Goldblum. So lie back, Jurassic Park-style, and prepare...

A ROLLICKING, ENTERTAINING RIDE THE PAGEANT OF DYSFUNCTION is an absurdist novel about the life of Ivan Spinoza, a fictional descendant of philosopher Baruch Spinoza who suffers from a cascade of modern ills, including bipolar disorder, beginning from his youth in the 1970s up until his battle in his fifties with Covid. The novel evokes the works of Saul Bellow, notably THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH, but with a tilted worldview reminiscent of Tom Robbins. Ivan Spinoza is a boy, and later a man, who either can’t or won’t change. Raised in Queens, New York, by a father who sells toupees ...

As it is often said in fairy tales and historical analyses, Maša's childhood years were a time when empires were falling—the time of the war in Croatia, 1991. Underground Barbie is set in that era, but also in the sounds of her childhood, the music, and the atmosphere that accompanied Barbie's move from plastic, yet safe, dollhouses to air-raid shelters.

Never fall for your hot young fake fiancé… It's simple, convince my family the engagement to my new secretary is real, if it works, the yacht club’s mine. The trouble is…I don’t do relationships. And I don’t do marriage. Being Star Island’s most eligible billionaire, you’d think getting her to say yes would be easy. But faking it gets complicated. I can do anything for a short time except getting stuck on a yacht with this smok’n hottie. The thought of those thick thighs wrapped around my neck ignites a blaze in me and I can’t keep my hands off her. But Isabella’s half ...

THE AUTHOR is a dark absurdist take on the artist as a young man in a world damaged by social media, designer drugs, and the dark underbelly of Hollywood. The anonymous author of the saga peels back the curtain to reveal the inner life of a one-day superstar (or sociopath) desperate to become famous by any means necessary, who one day does, and pulls off one of the greatest public relations stunts in entertainment history.

"In the Penal Colony" is a short story by Franz Kafka written in German in October 1914, revised in November 1918, and first published in October 1919. As in some of Kafka's other writings, the narrator in this story seems detached from, or perhaps numbed by, events that one would normally expect to be registered with horror. Internal clues and the setting on an island suggest Octave Mirbeau's The Torture Garden as an influence.