The Strange Recital

The Strange Recital is an audio forum for short fiction. We delight in perceptions of reality that twist and fold in unexpected ways.

Another War 05/04/2025

Another War "When the bombing started, J.T. Carter was deep in the bowels of a bank in Baltimore with a video camera on his shoulder, capturing, cinema verité, the mundane fate of everyone’s rent check." Desert Storm, 1991. And more foreign wars to follow. At home, we live our safe American lives full of domestic tedium and drama. Here is one man's story. /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/36424605

Against the Grain 04/06/2025

Against the Grain "The Floressas Des Esseintes, to judge by the various portraits preserved in the Château de Lourps, had originally been a family of stalwart troopers and stern cavalry men. Closely arrayed, side by side, in the old frames which their broad shoulders filled, they startled one with the fixed gaze of their eyes, their fierce moustaches and the chests whose deep curves filled the enormous shells of their cuirasses." This 1884 French novel exemplifies the Decadence literary movement and influenced Oscar Wilde. Join us to explore a style of writing from a time and place so unlike our own. /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/36023805

The House of Wisdom 03/09/2025

The House of Wisdom "Ibn Zakarya was born in the western mountains of Persia, when silk merchants from the east still plied their trade. Even as a half-naked child playing in a dust, he proved himself a prodigy, scratching the shape of the moon in the yellow earth." A tale of ancient deserts where the boundary between science and magic is blurred. A young man's genius is not always valued. What exactly is "wisdom"? /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/35592905

Fabian 02/02/2025

Fabian "When he was fifteen Fabian saw the film The 39 Steps, which had just come out. He liked to say that this film was a turning-point in his life. It was an epiphany for him. As he left the cinema he knew that he wanted to make films." An excerpt from a new novel in which characters invent other characters, and events are both magical and real. What is authorship? Who's in charge here, anyway? /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/35118325

Etidorhpa 01/05/2025

Etidorhpa "More than thirty years ago occurred the first of the series of remarkable events I am about to relate. The exact date I can not recall; but it was in November, and, to those familiar with November weather in the Ohio Valley, it is hardly necessary to state that the month is one of possibilities." The gloomy beginning of a strange Victorian novel...a man alone in a lamp lit room on a stormy night. But is he really alone? Where will this night lead? /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/34724615

Shadow 12/08/2024

Shadow "Last night I took the riverside walk for the first time in longer than I care to remember. Nothing much had changed. Homeless men and women were still spending the night on municipal benches. Some were asleep; they breathed noisily, or moaned." Who is this person who walks in the dark hours? Is his city the same as yours? In all temporal planes, humans carry on with lives both harsh and gentle. /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/34332960

When I Saw the Animal 11/03/2024

When I Saw the Animal "The first time I saw the animal, I’ll admit I was tired. It was late at night and I had been drinking at a moderate pace for several hours. The animal could have been anything, the way it flashed across the room, and I was too slow to get a good look at it." Something has invaded your home. Yes, it's real. Surely you can trust your own perceptions, right? But...is the thing changing? /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/33761852

My Past is Mine 10/06/2024

My Past is Mine "The voice asked at Eddie Tomlinson's elbow, 'Is this seat free?' Eddie nodded, and hardly looking around, picked up his hat which he had carelessly put on the seat at his side. Then he went back to his contemplation of the wooded hills through which the train was threading its way." In the 1950's, two men meet on a train...are they strangers or friends? One day, each of their worlds had drastically changed. So much was lost. Are their memories wrong? /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/33344782

Richard and Klokko 09/08/2024

Richard and Klokko "Everyone just wants to be loved a bit more than everyone else. See me and not my brothers, my sisters, my bandmates. Love me and not my kid. Feel my sadness." A dead rock star faces his life on a journey home. A lonely fan from the mountains does the same. Paul Smart reads from his novel OVERLOOK, and talks about its origins. /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/32958902

The Tunnel Diner 08/04/2024

The Tunnel Diner "Lightning flashed, thunder cracked, and the diner was instantly in utter blackness. There was a palpable sensation of absence in the air, a sort of death as all electrical vibration in the city ceased in one instant." A nighttime commuter encounters a hitchhiker in a New Jersey diner, but it's no ordinary meeting. Who is this odd traveler, and what changes will be wrought by his hypnotic powers? /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/32429597

Stories in a Clouded Mirror 07/07/2024

Stories in a Clouded Mirror "Valentine Basilevich Glass, native of Vyborg, accountant in the bureau of administration of the Leningrad Parks of Culture and Rest, led a number of unrelated lives. Whereas most people were trapped by the web of Soviet bureaucracy, he reveled in its complexity and quirkiness, finding in the course of his work numerous loopholes which he impressed in his memory, an unconscious act much like anticipating an annoying scratch on a phonograph record." Two very short stories about unusual men. Or are they stories about the culture? Or are they stories about you and me and the ways we make meaning? This episode may or may not have the answers. Also, have you ever broken the fourth wall? /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/32035157

Malarkey and Abdul 06/02/2024

Malarkey and Abdul "Their flight was routine, cruising at forty thousand feet, at a speed of five hundred and eighty miles an hour with the wind behind them. There was some turbulence as Malarkey began the descent and Abdul switched on the seatbelt signs. They pierced the clouds and lost visibility. Then they lost radio contact." Two friends face an inexplicable situation. How did they arrive in this primitive place? Can they bluff their way to safety? Maybe they're actually facing themselves. /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/31566972

Bifurcation Events 05/05/2024

Bifurcation Events "Elzy woke to cold, the scent of cold, of snow, of tent fabric. The coldness felt good on her hot skin. Confusion. She wasn’t in her room…? The child fell asleep again before she could figure it out. Nothing seemed worth thinking through. Her head hurt. Her chest hurt." As a child, she survived a world-changing event. As an adult, is it time for her to leave isolation behind, to more fully join the new society? An excerpt from a new novel about a potential future. /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/31128918

Covid-1984, The Musical 04/07/2024

Covid-1984, The Musical "Cheek to the cold floor, thick sole on my back, I began to sense my place in this moment in history. I had thought I was playing the hero, arriving just in time to save my mom, when I was put in a chokehold, thrown to the ground and tasered in the groin." A young Winston Smith faces a dramatic cultural shift: lockdowns, masks, surveillance, riots. "How did we get here?" he wonders, in a new satirical novel that looks back at the last four years. Can this story end more happily than Orwell's? /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/30715238

Death Watch 03/10/2024

Death Watch "'Like life, a watch provides complications to keep it interesting.' Watanabe sat cross-legged on a low stage while we sat packed around him, students at the feet of a high-art Socrates, all leaning forward to hear his surprisingly delicate voice." A luxury accessory that might, or might not, kill its owner. Does high risk mean high status? How does an ad man sell such a thing? Or is it all a hoax? A new novel explores the dark side of wealth culture. /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/30306548

The Woman in White 02/11/2024

The Woman in White "The heat had been painfully oppressive all day, and it was now a close and sultry night.... It was nearly midnight when the servant locked the garden-gate behind me. I walked forward a few paces on the shortest way back to London, then stopped and hesitated." Who is the mysterious woman encountered on the road so late at night? Here's an atmospheric introduction to a classic Victorian novel, followed by a discussion of its author. /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/29891898

A Book with No Author 01/07/2024

A Book with No Author "A.J. Campbell lowered the folded newsprint to his lap. His heart fishtailed and he struggled to breathe. This thing he had just read was an impossibility." A man discovers that private episodes from his life have been published as fiction by a stranger. Who is this story-thief? And what can be done to make it stop? Listen to this sample of a new novel called A Book with No Author. /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/29377028

The Bohemian Adventure 12/10/2023

The Bohemian Adventure "I have endeavoured to present the public with accounts of my friend, Sherlock Holmes, and of his singular intelligence, his vigour and his courage. He often joked with me that his great fame was due solely to my embellishments..." Dr. Watson at last reveals a never-before-told adventure in which Holmes faces a challenge he couldn't have imagined. What are the limits of the world's most logical mind? /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/29006198

The Night Crier 11/12/2023

The Night Crier "Ed Marks woke from another dream about his wife. She’d been standing in front of him, wearing a white gown that rippled in a breeze he couldn’t feel. In her arms she held a baby, too small and raw-looking to be alive." A man can't sleep. He's alone in the night. What is that sound, forever repeating from the dark woods? It has to be silenced at all costs. /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/28599703

Overlook 10/15/2023

Overlook "Wheels of a Delta 88 spin fast on winter-ravaged Upstate roadways. Fallow fields, half-encrusted in snow, the rest furrowed in frozen field-rot and iced-over mud, unfurl themselves on either side of a moonlit ridge." March 1986. Richard Manuel of The Band doesn't know he's dead. His double drives the lonely Catskills backroads. What are they seeking? Will they come together in Woodstock? /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/28318763

In Flames 09/17/2023

In Flames "The beautiful girl, my own girlfriend, lay on her back, needle in her hand. Her arm tied up with her underwear, pulled tightly with her teeth. She was unconscious." What if art in a gallery could show us a dying person's inner experience? Would we learn anything? A photographer who chases death tells his story. /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/28055868

The Goddess in Love with a Horse 08/20/2023

The Goddess in Love with a Horse "The first time Ava saw Angelo naked was on their wedding night (11 May 1860) when he strode into their bedroom, accidentally revealing to her startled eyes that from the waist down he had the hindquarters of a stallion." How should a young woman feel about her new husband's true nature? Horses are good! This excerpt from an award-winning novel uses warmth, humor, and magic to launch a multi-generational saga about a free-thinking artist. /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/27799515

2BR02B 07/23/2023

2BR02B "Everything was perfectly swell. There were no prisons, no slums, no insane asylums, no cripples, no poverty, no wars. All diseases were conquered. So was old age. Death, barring accidents, was an adventure for volunteers." How to make our future a paradise! In 1962, Vonnegut applied his double-edged imagination to the challenge. Does this story still apply today? /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/27540708

The House of the Seven Heavens 06/25/2023

The House of the Seven Heavens "She ran through the neighborhood; she had to find Ivan. She entered the synagogue, quickly covering her head. Instead of going directly up to the balcony she disobeyed the mechitza law that men and women should be separated, and went straight to the main floor of the sanctuary and stood beside him." A young woman faces life in a new land. What does it mean when she experiences strange visions in an odd, forbidden structure? /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/27258897

The Magic Hour 05/27/2023

The Magic Hour "Nathan Byrne walked up the steps of the police station and stopped before the polished steel and glass doors. An icy wind swept past him, sending debris flying down the street." A detective is facing a major life change, but he doesn't know it yet. Sometimes a mystery goes much deeper than just catching a killer. /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/26967246

Hair of the Dog 04/23/2023

Hair of the Dog “'I don’t know, Goddamnit!' It’s the only thing Willy’s sure of, and he keeps shouting it at the cop. In the dark room, a spotlight is burning his eyes down to the sockets. It’s a basement of sorts, the ceiling a crisscross of piping and duct work, industrial grey and dark green." Where memory should be: a black hole. Is there any hope? A man's struggle with addiction can't be kept secret when it threatens to destroy his family. /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/26623506

Fan Letters 03/12/2023

Fan Letters Something different for this episode! What kind of strange correspondence comes in to The Strange Recital mailbox? Here's a sampling. But wait... is there a story here somewhere? /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/26202402

The Dragon King's Palace 02/05/2023

The Dragon King's Palace "Propelled silently by his frog feet, the diver floated toward his destination. There was no light, except for the murky beam from his waterproof torch. He couldn’t be sure he was going the right way." A late-career secret agent... is this his last mission? Is he expendable? And who are these mysterious enemies anyway? What would you do if you had a chance to make a new start? /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/25833468

Ecological Memory 01/08/2023

Ecological Memory "The pack had quickly come to feel like part of her body. She could forget its weight, take its contents for granted, and if she wanted to bushwhack up an interesting-looking ridge, or hop into somebody’s horse cart at a road crossing, everything she needed simply came with her automatically. She and her teacher were free as turtles, needing nothing for shelter but their persons." The future. A young woman travels with her mentor through a time when ninety percent of humans are gone, yet nature thrives. What will she learn? Can a new world be a better world? /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/25535916

The Berserkers 12/11/2022

The Berserkers "Snorri cackled and sucked at his teeth. The wind blasted across the lake, cutting the snow into sharp ridges. He hurled instructions at me as if he were whipping a husky, and I spun the wheel according to Snorri’s command. Our tires rolled off the beach onto the thick ice cap that froze over the lake in winter, clods of snow drumming the floorboard from underneath like the rapping of the dead." A Scandinavian murder mystery... but much more. A rollicking ride with vividly-drawn misfits through wintry desolation, quirky cop-work, and postmodern Viking derring-do! /episode/index/show/thestrangerecital/id/25288935

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