I’m not sure if this even counts as a genre (I certainly can’t think of a name for it, as evidenced by the clunky post title), but I have read and hugely enjoyed two novels that are, in effect, a series of short stories which can be read as stand-alone but which are also inter-connected to form a clear meta-narrative. They were *The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing* by Melissa Bank and *The Cactus League* by Emily Nemens. They were both terrific and I’d like to read more like that; I think I particularly liked them since I don’t usually enjoy short stories since I like to get invested in narratives and character and find it frustrating to be torn away from them too quickly. These books gave me the best of both worlds. Any suggestions for similar books would be gratefully received!
by anotherkate
7 Comments
The Draco Tavern by Larry Niven
Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon by Spider Robinson.
Exactly what you’re describing, short stories that fit in a larger narrative. There are multiple books in the series.
According to this link ([https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/ask-writer/what-is-a-collection-of-linked-stories-is-this-a-relatively-new-genre](https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/ask-writer/what-is-a-collection-of-linked-stories-is-this-a-relatively-new-genre)) they’re called short story cycles, short story sequences, composite novels and novel-in-stories. Another common term seems to be linked short stories.
A recent Pulitzer Prize winning example is *A Visit from the Goon Squad* by Jennifer Egan (I read that and didn’t really like it, FWIW). Another famous example that’s on my list is *Olive Kitteridge* by Elizabeth Strout.
Here are some lists from Goodreads:
[https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/82018.Best_Short_Story_Cycles](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/82018.Best_Short_Story_Cycles)
[https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/171638.My_big_list_of_linked_short_story_collections](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/171638.My_big_list_of_linked_short_story_collections)
[https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/174331.My_big_list_of_linked_short_story_collections_II](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/174331.My_big_list_of_linked_short_story_collections_II)
[https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/180079.My_big_list_of_linked_short_story_collections_III](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/180079.My_big_list_of_linked_short_story_collections_III)
Shit Cassandra Saw
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
The Graveyard book by Neil Gaiman seems like a novel with connected short stories.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. It follows two branches of a family tree through several generations, so each chapter is a new character in a new time period.