These short stories use flashbacks as a key storytelling device. In some, the narrative briefly steps into the past to clarify a moment in the present; in others, memory and recollection shape the entire structure of the story. Flashbacks may appear as sudden interruptions, extended recollections, or a series of remembered episodes that gradually reveal what matters most.
The stories on this page include well-known classics as well as lesser-read works, all of which rely on flashbacks to deepen character, provide context, or reframe events. Together, they offer a wide range of approaches to using the past as part of the present narrative.
Short Stories Using Flashbacks
“Everything Stuck to Him” by Raymond Carver
A woman visiting her father in Milan for Christmas wants to hear a story from when she was a kid. She’s told about a young couple who lived under a dentist’s office. They were in love and ambitious with a newborn. The young man plans a hunting trip with an old friend of his father’s. (Summary & Analysis of “Everything Stuck to Him”)
“The Answer Is No” by Naguib Mahfouz
A new headmaster is appointed at a school. One of the female teachers is dazed after hearing the news; he had been her private tutor when she was almost fourteen. (Summary of “The Answer Is No”)
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner
A Southern spinster, Emily Grierson, has died. She had been a recluse, so the townspeople are curious about her and her house. The narrator recounts episodes from her life.
“The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” by Ernest Hemingway
An American couple are on safari in Africa with a professional hunter as their guide. The story reveals that Francis Macomber panicked during an earlier lion hunt, an incident that hangs over the rest of the trip.
“I Walk Between the Raindrops” by T. C. Boyle
The narrator and his wife are in Kingman, Arizona, staying at a Motel 6. While at a bar a woman says she has ESP, and asks if he wants to play a game. He gently rebuffs her but she persists. He recalls a wild fire disaster, an incident when his wife worked for the Suicide Prevention Hotline, and a time they tried to play matchmaker.
“Mono no Aware” by Ken Liu
The remaining 1,021 humans are aboard the Hopeful, headed for 61 Virginis. Hiroto’s family followed the evacuation plan of the Japanese government, as citizens of other nation’s followed theirs. The situation didn’t go smoothly. Hiroto monitors the solar sail that powers the vessel. (Summary of “Mono no Aware”)
This story can be read in the preview of The Future is Japanese.
“A Horseman in the Sky” by Ambrose Bierce
During the American Civil War, Carter Druse, fighting for the North, falls asleep at his sentry post but wakes in time to catch a spy for the South.
“Death by Landscape” by Margaret Atwood
Lois, a widowed woman, lives alone surrounded by landscape paintings that both draw her in and unsettle her. She remembers her years at summer camp, her friendship with a girl named Lucy, and a disturbing experience from her final summer there.
“Conscience of the Court” by Zora Neale Hurston
Laura Kimble, a maid, is on trial for beating Clement Beasley, a white man who came to her employer’s home to collect on a loan. The court hears conflicting accounts of what happened when Beasley tried to seize household goods as collateral. (Read “Conscience of the Court”)
“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter
Doctor Harry visits Granny Weatherall, nearly eighty and bedridden. As she resists his help, her thoughts drift through memories of her life, including her children, unfinished business, and the man who left her at the altar.
“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin
The narrator, a high school teacher, reads in the paper that his younger brother, Sonny, has been arrested for dealing heroin. Their lives have gone quite differently—Sonny, a jazz musician and drug user, and the narrator who is educated and living in a middle-class neighborhood—so the narrator feels guilt over not having been able to help his brother more. (Read “Sonny’s Blues”)
“The New Dress” by Virginia Woolf
Mabel attends a party and quickly becomes convinced her dress is wrong. Unable to afford a fashionable one, she had it made from an old pattern, and surrounded by well-dressed guests, her long-standing feelings of inferiority overwhelm her.
“Black is My Favorite Color” by Bernard Malamud
Nat Lime, a Jewish bachelor, is drawn to African-American people. He thinks about his experiences with them, which never seemed to go the way he wanted.
“Runaway” by Alice Munro
Carla and Clark live in a mobile home. Their neighbor, Sylvia, returns from a trip to Greece. Clark has a temper and has had run ins with several people in the area. Carla’s worried about her goat, Flora, that’s been missing two days. Sylvia calls for Carla to come help with the house tomorrow. Clark has been ruminating on a scheme for a while and he wants Carla to start it.
“The Half-Skinned Steer” by Annie Proulx
After learning his brother has been killed by an emu, Mero Corn drives from Massachusetts to Wyoming for the funeral. During the trip, he recalls a disturbing story told to him years earlier about a rancher and a half-skinned steer.
“Aftermath” by Mary Yukari Waters
Japan is becoming Americanized following its defeat in WW II. Makiko, a widow, worries that her son will forget his heritage and his father.
“You’re Ugly, Too” by Lorrie Moore
Zoe Hendricks is an unmarried history professor. She lives alone and has trouble connecting with men. She likes using humor, often at the expense of whoever is nearby. Her sister invites her to a Halloween party.
“Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Mrs. Dutta, an elderly widow, moves from India to live with her son in America. As she struggles to adjust, she considers how to answer a letter from a friend back home asking whether she is happy.
“Paris 1991” by Kate Walbert
Rebecca and her husband, Tom, go to Paris to conceive a child. Rebecca thinks often of her mother, Marion, who died a few months earlier.
“The Daffodil Sky” by H. E. Bates
A man returns to a town after many years away. He’s looking for Cora Whitehead, a woman he used to see. We hear the story of their relationship and of a decision he made that changed everything irrevocably.
“The Last Lovely City” by Alice Adams
Benito Zamora, a doctor and widower, is invited to a dinner party by a young woman. He sees several people he is acquainted with, but he keeps to himself a lot.
“The Elephant Vanishes” by Haruki Murakami
An elephant, the ward of a Japanese town, disappears along with its caregiver. The narrator follows the story of the elephant closely, clipping all the news articles and thinking about what happened.
“Last Night” by James Salter
Marit, a woman dying of cancer, asks her husband, Walter, to help her die quickly. He agrees to give her an overdose of her medication. They have one last night out with a family friend, and then prepare for the end.
“The Sky is Gray” by Ernest Gaines
James is an eight-year-old black boy in the 1930’s South. He has a bad toothache but didn’t tell his mother about it, not wanting to be a crybaby and knowing they can’t afford to have it pulled. After he tries aspirin and a prayer cure with his aunt’s help, without success, his mother discovers the problem.
“Han’s Crime” by Shiga Naoya
Han, a circus performer, severs his wife’s carotid artery during their knife throwing act; she dies immediately. Han is arrested and, along with the circus manager and stagehand, is questioned by a judge about the death. He tries to determine if it was premeditated or accidental.
“Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason
Leroy has been off work for four months since getting hurt. His wife, Norma Jean, supports them both by working at a drugstore. Leroy is glad to be home with his wife, but he’s worried that she’s drawing away from him—maybe his presence reminds her of their son who died as a baby.
“The Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway
On the African savannah, a man’s leg is rotting with gangrene. His wife tries to comfort and encourage him. As he waits for death, he thinks about his life.
“The Pagan Rabbi” by Cynthia Ozick
The narrator hears that a renowned rabbi and childhood friend, Isaac, has committed suicide. He visits Isaac’s widow and learns that he had become fixated on nature before his death.
“The Northern Lights” by Joy Harjo
Whirling Soldier is a Native American Vietnam War veteran. In flashbacks, we see his childhood, his war days and his post-war life. He has struggled with drug and alcohol use.
“Wunderkind” by Carson McCullers
Frances, fifteen, arrives at the home of her piano instructor, Mr. Bilderbach. She is nervous; her playing has deteriorated lately. She has her lesson, and thinks about her history with her instructor, recent events that worry her, and her hopes and concerns. (Read “Wunderkind”)
“Swaddling Clothes” by Yukio Mishima
Toshiko and her husband had hired a nurse. She gave birth to an illegitimate child in their house; they were unaware of the pregnancy until the birth. The situation has a strong effect on her, making her think about modernization and class differences.
“The Rememberer” by Aimee Bender
A man experiences rapid, reverse evolution. He goes from man to ape to sea turtle, losing about a million years a day.
Flashbacks allow short story writers to compress time and give emotional weight to events that might otherwise remain unseen. Whether brief or extended, these shifts into the past often reveal motivations, regrets, or turning points that reshape how the present moment is understood.
The stories listed here show how flexible the flashback can be—as a structural frame, a momentary interruption, or the dominant mode of narration—and how powerfully it can be used in short fiction.