Thirty-two selections, spanning from 1900 to 1990, from turn-of-the-century romantic tales to sketches of street life during the "velvet revolution" of 1989. Stories are arranged in order of publication. A variety of short-prose forms-short story, surrealist story, parable, anecdote, novella, fairy tale, and experimental texts-provide a range of lengths and level of difficulty.

Generous representation of major authors, among them, Rilke, Mann, Hesse, Kafka, and Brecht, works by women (eight selections), and writers from different German-speaking cultures and countries-Austria, Switzerland, writers from the former German Democratic Republic, a Turkish refugee in Berlin, as well as authors from the Federal Republic.

Linguistic aids-extensive German-English glosses throughout the texts and a thorough German-English end-vocabulary-help students read more insightfully.

Brief biographical introductions in German to the author and the historical and cultural setting help contextualize the works.

Guiding questions precede each selection and are intended to facilitate close reading, analysis, and interpretation. Specialized literary terminology is defined in a Glossary of Terms.