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Magic & Mechanics
Six of the best recent short stories, disassembled by their authors.
Magic & Mechanics features six phenomenal stories, each followed by an interview with its author exploring how it was written. An innovative anthology revealing the inspiration, the ideals and the work involved in great writing.
An essential book for everyone interested in how fiction works…
Magic & Mechanics features six phenomenal stories, each followed by an interview with its author exploring how it was written. An innovative anthology revealing the inspiration, the ideals and the work involved in great writing.
An essential book for everyone interested in how fiction works…
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 26, 2026
Magic and Mechanics is essentially the third in a series edited by Tom Conaghan of the wonderful Scratch Books, following on from Reverse Engineering and Reverse Engineering II.
Scratch Books is a press Tom founded dedicated to the art and craft of the short-story, publishing both innovative anthologies, such as these, as well as brillant original works.
We are Scratch Books.
We are named after a strange sensation - the feeling of stroking the soft fur of a cat, to discover later as you walk away, that it scratched you.
Which, for us, is what a short story is like...
The unique concept of Magic & Mechanics, and its predecessors, is that Conaghan selects a series of great modern short stories, previously published, but pairs each of them with in-depth interviews with each author, of a similar length (15-20 pages) as the stories, where Conaghan and the author disassemble the story and the inspiration (the magic) and the craft (the mechanics) that went it to it.
I'm sure this is highly insightful for aspiring writers, but actually for a pure reader like myself, it provides huge insight into not only the particular works, but also literary fiction in general.
The authors in Magic and Mechanics speak to the quality of the stories, and interviwews - George Saunders; Claire-Louise Bennett; Mark Haddon; Camilla Grudova ; Amber Medland; and Colin Barrett.
One common theme, in what are otherwise very different stories and interviews, is how each of the writers aims to challenge and stretch the form - Camilla Grudova putting it perfectly:
“I feel that if it works, it works, and if you can find a new way to break the rules then it’s quite exciting.
As opposed to a novel, the short story is a bit like a blue cheese that would be hard to consume in large quantities - which means there’s more possibilities for the surreal because you’re not there for as long.”
The authors' reactions reading their own work is also fascinating - including their different views o of their own editing (Medland “I don’t think I’m a great editor” c.f. Haddon “I think I’m an okay writer but a really good editor”).
Highly recommended (4.5 stars; 4 only as the concept is now familiar to me, if still highly rewarding) - as indeed is everything Scratch Books produce.
Scratch Books is a press Tom founded dedicated to the art and craft of the short-story, publishing both innovative anthologies, such as these, as well as brillant original works.
We are Scratch Books.
We are named after a strange sensation - the feeling of stroking the soft fur of a cat, to discover later as you walk away, that it scratched you.
Which, for us, is what a short story is like...
The unique concept of Magic & Mechanics, and its predecessors, is that Conaghan selects a series of great modern short stories, previously published, but pairs each of them with in-depth interviews with each author, of a similar length (15-20 pages) as the stories, where Conaghan and the author disassemble the story and the inspiration (the magic) and the craft (the mechanics) that went it to it.
I'm sure this is highly insightful for aspiring writers, but actually for a pure reader like myself, it provides huge insight into not only the particular works, but also literary fiction in general.
The authors in Magic and Mechanics speak to the quality of the stories, and interviwews - George Saunders; Claire-Louise Bennett; Mark Haddon; Camilla Grudova ; Amber Medland; and Colin Barrett.
One common theme, in what are otherwise very different stories and interviews, is how each of the writers aims to challenge and stretch the form - Camilla Grudova putting it perfectly:
“I feel that if it works, it works, and if you can find a new way to break the rules then it’s quite exciting.
As opposed to a novel, the short story is a bit like a blue cheese that would be hard to consume in large quantities - which means there’s more possibilities for the surreal because you’re not there for as long.”
The authors' reactions reading their own work is also fascinating - including their different views o of their own editing (Medland “I don’t think I’m a great editor” c.f. Haddon “I think I’m an okay writer but a really good editor”).
Highly recommended (4.5 stars; 4 only as the concept is now familiar to me, if still highly rewarding) - as indeed is everything Scratch Books produce.
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April 13, 2026very cool concept!! loved reading the interviews and appreciated the range of styles and approaches.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews