8.4 /10 1 Votes
Cover artist Leo and Diane Dillon Publication date 1980 Pages 332 pp Originally published 1980 Genre Short story Country United States of America | 4.2/5 Goodreads Language English Media type Print (Hardcover) ISBN 0-395-28587-9 Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nominations Nebula Award for Best Short Story, Locus Award for Best Short Story Similar Harlan Ellison books, Short Stories | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shatterday is a collection of short stories by author Harlan Ellison. In the introduction, Ellison states that the stories reflect an underlying theme of fear of human frailty and ugliness. His goal is to shock his readers into seeing that this fear unifies all people. Each story has an introduction, ranging from a single sentence to several pages long.
Some of Ellison's most well known stories are included in Shatterday. "Jeffty Is Five" won both a Nebula Award and a Hugo Award. It was also voted in a 1999 online poll of Locus readers to be the best short story of all time. "All the Lies that Are My Life" had been previously published the same year as a novella. The title story was made into the first episode of the 1985 revival of The Twilight Zone. Other stories have been reprinted in omnibus collections such as The Essential Ellison: a 35-Year Retrospective and Dreams With Sharp Teeth.