'In a totally sane society, madness is the only freedom'

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The Complete Short Stories

J. G. Ballard

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.

Reviews of The Complete Short Stories

  • ‘[Ballard has] one of the most haunting, cogent and individual imaginations in contemporary literature’ William Boyd, Mail on Sunday

    ‘A feast, and not only for those who think – as I do – that Ballard has long been Britain’s most original and inventive writer. For anyone bored with the stale conventions of mainstream fiction, his 90-odd stories of stilled time, desolate beauty and personal fulfilment in extreme situations will be sheer delight’ John Gray, New Statesman

    ‘This marvellous, inexhaustible book is a monument at the end of fertile lands…Ballard is a superb writer; few could publish a book of this size which is never boring, where the invention never flags. Unfailingly ingenious and perverse’ Philip Hensher, Daily Telegraph

    ‘Thank God for J.G. Ballard and his short stories in which wonder and awe never fade. It is no exaggeration to say that Ballard’s stories are beyond compare. This is a collection of tales and fables to be savoured by admirers and newcomers alike’ Robert Edric, Spectator

    ‘Reading this book of collected stories is a peculiarly enriching experience.’ Jason Cowley, Observer

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