The Bishop of Hell and Other Stories by Marjorie Bowen is a collection of feminist tales about the hardship of women and haunting and dark supernatural happenings. Excerpt: "SHE who had been Florence Flannery noted with a careless eye the stains of wet on the dusty stairs, and with a glance ill-used to the observance of domesticities looked up for damp or dripping ceilings. The dim-walled staircase revealed nothing but more dust, yet this would serve as a peg for ill-humor to hang on, so Florence pouted."

Bowen's stories show a mastery of detail, a sureness of expression and an acute reading of human nature that give them a sinister force which is realistic and unnerving, yet at the same time tinged with pity and compassion.

THE evening service was being celebrated on the eve of Palm Sunday in the Old Petrovsky Convent. When they began distributing the palm it was close upon ten o'clock, the candles were burning dimly, the wicks wanted snuffing; it was all in a sort of mist. In the twilight of the church the crowd seemed heaving like the sea, and to Bishop Pyotr, who had been unwell for the last three days, it seemed that all the faces-old and young, men's and women's-were alike, that everyone who came up for the palm had the same expression in his eyes. In the mist he could not see the doors; the crowd kept moving and looked as though there were no end to it. The female choir was singing, a nun was reading the prayers for the day.How stifling, how hot it was! How long the service went on! Bishop Pyotr was tired. His breathing was laboured and rapid, his throat was parched, his shoulders ached with weariness, his legs were trembling. And it disturbed him unpleasantly when a religious maniac uttered occasional shrieks in the gallery. And then all of a sudden, as though in a dream or delirium, it seemed to the bishop as though his own mother Marya Timofyevna, whom he had not seen for nine years, or some old woman just like his mother, came up to him out of the crowd, and, after taking a palm branch from him, walked away looking at him all the while good-humouredly with a kind, joyful smile until she was lost in the crowd. And for some reason tears flowed down his face. There was peace in his heart, everything was well, yet he kept gazing fixedly towards the left choir, where the prayers were being read, where in the dusk of evening you could not recognize anyone, and-wept. Tears glistened on his face and on his beard. Here someone close at hand was weeping, then someone else farther away, then others and still others, and little by little the church was filled with soft weeping. And a little later, within five minutes, the nuns' choir was singing; no one was weeping and everything was as before.

An artist in mourning for a brother who died fighting in Bosnia, a restless young woman alerted to the possibility of life outside her tight knit community, an unemployed lawyer lingering in a Kenyan hospital - Lily Mabura's first collection of short stories deals with characters whose fates fascinate and alarm. Set in Kenya, the USA, Namibia and the Congo, these brief, evocative tales demonstrate an acute sensitivity to the globalised trajectories which increasingly distinguish our world. One of Kenya's most promising authors, Lily Mabura's story 'How Shall We Kill the Bishop?' was shortlisted for the 2010 Caine Prize for African Fiction

The Bishop and Other Stories (1919) is a collection of short stories by Russian writer Anton Chekhov. The title story of the collection, originally published in 1902, finds the author at his most introspective. Written while Chekhov was dealing with the long term effects of tuberculosis, a period in which he began to accept the inevitability of his own death, “The Bishop” is a meditative story that follows a dedicated man who, in the face of oblivion, wants nothing more than to go about his work to the best of his ability. “The Bishop” is the story of a man named Pyotr. Set during Easter Week, it begins while Pyotr is passing out palms at a service on the night before Palm Sunday. As he begins to feel faint, he sees his mother—whose presence he did not expect—and begins to cry. Over the next several days, Pyotr goes about his duties, caring for the sick and dying, officiating at the local cathedral, and meeting with his colleagues, all while growing sicker and increasingly irritable. As he succumbs to typhoid fever, his mother and his faith are all he has left in a world that will soon forget him. “The Letter” is a similarly religious, earlier story in which a conversation between two priests, Father Orlov and Father Anastasi, is interrupted by the deacon. As the three discuss what is to be done with the deacon’s wayward son, the difference between morality and mercy is illuminated for all to see. The Bishop and Other Stories is a collection of seven short works of fiction by Russian literary icon Anton Chekhov. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Anton Chekhov’s The Bishop and Other Stories is a classic of Russian literature reimagined for modern readers.

Father Duncan MacAskill has spent most of his priesthood as the "Exorcist"—an enforcer employed by his bishop to discipline wayward priests and suppress potential scandal. He knows all of the devious ways that lonely priests persuade themselves that their needs trump their vows, but he's about to be sorely tested himself. While sequestered by his bishop in a small rural parish to avoid an impending public controversy, Duncan must confront the consequences of past cover–ups and the suppression of his own human needs. Pushed to the breaking point by loneliness, tragedy, and sudden self–knowledge, Duncan discovers how hidden obsessions and guilty secrets either find their way to the light of understanding or poison any chance we have for love and spiritual peace.

Presents a collection of short stories, including "Beluthahatchie," which tells the story of a guitarist who refuses to disembark a train at Hell and his adventures at the next stop.

Darrin Bainbridge is your typical playboy in need of love, but not yet ready. He is a freelance journalist trying to break his big story. After a visit from his mother, Darrin gets an idea. He has heard all kinds of stories about "Hollywood" ministers who hold their church services on television, live in nice houses, drive nice cars, and have lots of money and women. Darrin is disgusted by it all especially when his mother Priscilla starts shouting praises for Atlanta Bishop Kumal Prentiss. Darrin decides to go to Atlanta, become a member of the bishop's church, and expose him for the hustling fraud that he believes he is. He just never planned on falling in love with the Bishop's daughter. Darrin suddenly finds himself torn between his new found friend and his possible big break.

In the predominantly mormon city of Draper, Utah, some seemingly perfect families have deadly secrets. Linda Wallheim is a devout Mormon, mother of five boys and wife of a bishop. But Linda’s daily routine of church-going, Relief Society meetings, and visiting church ward members is turned upside down as a disturbing situation takes shape in her seemingly idyllic neighborhood. Young wife and mother Carrie Helm has disappeared. Carrie’s husband, Jared, claims that she has abandoned the family, but Linda doesn’t trust him. As she snoops, trying to learn more about the Helms’ circumstances, Linda becomes convinced Jared murdered his wife and painted himself as a wronged husband. Inspired by a chilling true crime and written by a practicing Mormon, The Bishop’s Wife is both a fascinating peek into the lives of modern Mormons and a grim and cunningly twisted mystery.