Fiction, Distilled

What makes short stories so compelling?In this conversation, authors Colm Tóibín and Ruth Ozeki come together to reflect on their new collections and on what draws them to short form at this stage in their writing lives.Tóibín's 'The News from Dublin' returns to themes of memory, place and inner life with his characteristic clarity, while Ozeki's 'The Typing Lady and Other Fictions', her first collection of short stories, marks a new direction in a career known for its formal range and intellectual curiosity.

Talking across borders and traditions, they explore what short stories allow that novels do not and why brevity can sometimes carry the deepest emotional force.