“Werner” by Jo Ann Beard (2007)

Only afterwards did I discover that this was in fact a piece of

densely textured reportage, but it taught me so much about

how to write a short story that I will always see it as one. A

young man, Werner Hoeflich, trapped by a fire, escapes by

leaping from the window of his New York apartment, across

the intervening gap and in through the window of the

adjacent building. It has the richness of a novel, the raw and

dirty grip of life and was, for me, a revelation. Fine language

and a deftly conjured mood are all well and good, but fiction

– of whatever length – should thrill. Mark Haddon