The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories

The perfect gift this Christmas season: a generous selection of some of the greatest festive stories of all time - now in a beautiful clothbound edition This is a collection of the most magical; moving; chilling and surprising Christmas stories from around the world; taking us from frozen Nordic woods to glittering Paris; a New York speakeasy to an English country house; bustling Lagos to midnight mass in Rio; and even outer space. Here are classic tales from writers including Truman Capote; Shirley Jackson; Dylan Thomas; Saki and Chekhov; as well as little-known treasures such as Italo Calvino's wry sideways look at Christmas consumerism; Wolfdietrich Schnurre's story of festive ingenuity in Berlin; Selma Lagerlof's enchanted forest in Sweden; and Irene Nemerovsky's dark family portrait. Featuring santas; ghosts; trolls; unexpected guests; curmudgeons and miracles; here is Christmas as imagined by some of the greatest short story writers of all time.