Top 10 Hemingway Short Stories

Ernest Hemingway’s short stories are small in size but enormous in impact – stripped-down narratives that say more with silence than most writers say with paragraphs. His work spans war, love, loss, identity, and the quiet tensions of everyday life, all delivered in his signature lean, precise style. 

Whether you’re new to his work or revisiting old favorites, these stories capture Hemingway at his very best.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro

As a writer lies dying from an infected wound during an African safari, he reflects on the life he once intended to capture on the page but never fully lived. His memories drift between failures, regrets, and the artistic ambition he abandoned, all while a looming snow-covered peak becomes a symbolic reminder of the clarity he never reached.

The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

During a tense African safari, Francis Macomber’s disastrous encounter with a wounded lion exposes the cracks in his marriage and his own lifelong cowardice. But when he finally discovers a sense of courage, it sparks a sudden shift in the power dynamics between him and his wife. That newfound bravery sets the stage for a shocking and ambiguous finale that raises enduring questions about fear, masculinity, and control.

Hills Like White Elephants

Set at a train station in Spain, the story follows a couple engaged in a tense, indirect conversation about an unnamed operation the man wants the woman to undergo. Their dialogue circles around the real issue without ever stating it outright, revealing growing emotional distance. The landscape – dry hills, distant rivers, and the divide between tracks – mirrors their fractured connection.

Cat in the Rain

In a quiet Italian hotel, an American wife becomes fixated on a cat she sees outside in the rain, a small creature she longs to rescue. Her desire for the cat opens into a deeper yearning for comfort, stability, and a sense of being seen – things she can’t quite articulate to her detached husband. The hotel-keeper’s gentle attention contrasts sharply with her husband’s indifference, highlighting her loneliness.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

Late at night in a nearly empty café, two waiters watch over an elderly man who lingers with his brandy, seeking refuge in the café’s light and order. As the younger waiter grows impatient, the older one recognizes the man’s quiet despair, seeing in him a reflection of his own fear of darkness, loneliness, and “nothingness.”

The Old Man At The Bridge

Set during the Spanish Civil War, the story follows a weary old man stranded at a collapsing bridge as civilians flee advancing troops. Too exhausted to continue, he tells a soldier about the animals he left behind – his only real attachments in the world. As the soldier urges him to move for his own safety, it becomes clear the man has nowhere to go and no one to go with, making his stillness a quiet symbol of those swept aside by war.

Indian Camp

A young Nick Adams accompanies his father, a doctor, to an isolated Indigenous camp where a woman is enduring a brutal and prolonged childbirth. Nick witnesses both the harsh improvised surgery his father performs and the shocking aftermath involving the woman’s husband, who has taken his own life. Through Nick’s eyes, the story traces a jarring collision, leaving him to confront the complexity of the adult world for the first time.

Soldier’s Home

Returning home from World War I, Harold Krebs struggles to readjust to civilian life in his small hometown. Friends and family expect him to share heroic tales, but he feels disconnected, numb, and unable to relate to the ordinary concerns around him. As he drifts through days of aimless routine and emotional isolation, Krebs confronts the lingering effects of war on identity, purpose, and the challenge of finding meaning in a world that has moved on without him.

Big Two-Hearted River

Nick Adams returns to the wilderness of northern Michigan, seeking refuge from the psychological scars of war. He sets up camp, fishes, and methodically attends to the small tasks of survival, finding solace in the rhythm of nature. Hemingway explores themes of healing, routine, and the restorative power of the natural world, showing how small, controlled acts can offer a fragile sense of order and peace.

The Three-Day Blow

Nick Adams spends a stormy afternoon with his friend Bill, drinking and talking in a cabin as rain pounds the landscape outside. Their conversation drifts between mundane topics and deeper reflections on life, love, and personal choices, subtly revealing Nick’s emotional state after a recent breakup.

The End of Something

Nick Adams and Marjorie visit the abandoned lumber town of Hortons Bay, once bustling but now empty and decayed. Amid the quiet ruins, their relationship begins to unravel, mirroring the decline of the town itself. Hemingway explores the impermanence of love, the inevitability of change, and the quiet pain of endings that arrive without ceremony.

The Killers

Two hitmen arrive in a small-town diner, calmly informing the patrons that they intend to kill a man named Ole Andreson. The tension builds as the townspeople grapple with fear, curiosity, and the futility of intervening. Hemingway examines fatalism, inevitability, and the quiet dread that descends when ordinary life collides with sudden violence.

Honorable Mentions:

• The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio
• After the Storm
• The Undefeated
• A Day’s Wait
• The Big Two-Hearted River, Part II
• The Capital of the World