These short stories by Graham Greene, Kate Chopin, Bernard MacLaverty, Roald Dahl and Shirley Jackson – all with a surprise ending – explore themes such as appearances and reality, prejudices and beliefs, and isolation – all raising questions which relate to the human condition.Text analysis activities focus on comprehension, characters, setting and plot, as well as style, language, narrative techniques and themes. Follow-up work offers creative tasks for students – imagining a different ending and point-of-view re-writing – which highlight their personal response to the texts.