New Writing on Granta.com
Podcasts|Issue 169
Podcast | Wang Xiaoshuai
Wang Xiaoshuai
‘It’s more like painting. It’s not like a film.’
Wang Xiaoshuai on the evolution of Chinese cinema and the challenges faced by those working at the vanguard of independent film.
Poetry|Issue 169
Two Poems
Yu Xiang
Translated by Fiona Sze-Lorrain
‘a centipede devours a grand piano, so / ten thousand fingers / devour Bach’ Poetry by Yu Xiang, translated by Fiona Sze-Lorrain.
Essays & Memoir|Issue 169
Friends
Jia Pingwa
Translated by Dylan Levi King
‘Your friends might never know you intimately. There are those that will know you intimately but never be your friend.’ Jia Pingwa on friendship.
Fiction|Issue 169
Ocean Hotpot
Si’an Chen
Translated by Jeremy Tiang
‘I promise you, the committee only looks at two things: how feasible a proposal is, and what it could actually do for the environment.’ A bureaucrat and an entrepreneur discuss environment-saving proposals in a short play by Si’an Chen, translated by Jeremy Tiang.
Fiction|The Online Edition
The Institute
Maia Siegel
‘The Institute was meeting at Yale, at a corner bar with a pool table and subpar beer. It was only a society at this point, attempting to build itself out.’ Fiction by Maia Siegel.
Granta 169: China
The Piranhas
Jianan Qian
‘In the end, the real world always finds a way to live up to rumor.’
Fiction by Jianan Qian, translated by Jianan Qian and Alyssa Asquith.
The Excitements of Spring
Zou Jingzhi
‘As a young man, I wanted to learn how to love, but in the end, I did nothing. I wanted to torture myself, but didn’t know where to begin.’
Fiction by Zou Jingzhi, translated by Jeremy Tiang.
Goodbye, Bridge of the East
Wang Zhanhei
‘To make sure she was looking her best in the photos, Wu Jiayu avoided eating during our dates, and she didn’t order anything for me when we were done.’
A short story by Wang Zhanhei, translated by Dave Haysom.
The Civilian Level
Lie Jie & Zhang Jungang
‘Photographs, they feel, lie in wait for them.’
Photography by Li Jie and Zhang Jungang introduced by Granta.
The Vegetarian
Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith
Winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature
Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more ‘plant-like’ existence, decides to become a vegetarian, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares. In South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye’s decision is a shocking act of subversion. Her passive rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, leading her bland husband to self-justified acts of sexual sadism.
Fraught, disturbing and beautiful, The Vegetarian is a novel about modern day South Korea, but also a novel about shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others, from one imprisoned body to another.
£8.99
From the Archive
Call If You Need Me
Raymond Carver
‘She watched me as I wrote out a cheque for the three months’ rent. Later, back at the motel, in bed, she lay with her hand on her forehead and said, “I envy your wife.”’
Fiction by Raymond Carver.
Knives
Louise Erdrich
‘It is time, now, for Karl to break down with his confession that I am a slow-burning fuse in his loins. A hair trigger. I am a name he cannot silence. A dream that never burst.’
Fiction by Louise Erdrich.
A Clean Marriage
Sayaka Murata
‘Frequency of sex since marriage: zero.’
Sayaka Murata on a sexless marriage and the ‘Clean Breeder’ technique for pleasureless reproduction.
Highlights From Granta Books
Recommended Reading
The Museum Guard
J.M. Coetzee
‘Do they strike people as a strange couple? He does not know, does not care.’
Fiction by J.M. Coetzee.
Where the Language Changes
Bathsheba Demuth
‘I am on the hunt for the Russian Empire, or what traces might still exist of its colonial enterprise.’
Bathsheba Demuth travels the Yukon river, following the history of the fur trade and the Nulato massacre.
Have a Good Trip with Trabant
Martin Roemers & Durs Grünbein
‘Question: ‘What do a Trabant and a condom have in common?’ Answer: ‘Both decrease the pleasure of the ride.’’
Durs Grünbein introduces photography by Martin Roemers.
Lifetimes of the Soviet Union
Yuri Slezkine
‘Bolshevism, like most millenarian movements, proved a one-generation phenomenon.’
Yuri Slezkine on Soviet history and the generational arc of revolution.
News, Prizes and Events
When I Sing, Mountains Dance and Chilean Poet Shortlisted for Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize
When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Sola (trans. Mara Faye Lethem) and Chilean Poet by Alejandro Zambra (trans. Megan McDowell) are both shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize.
Our Share of Night Shortlisted for The Kitschies
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez (trans. Megan McDowell) is shortlisted for The Kitschies Red Tentacle award, awarded to speculative, sci-fi and fantasy novels.
I’m A Fan Wins a British Book Award
I'm A Fan by Sheena Patel wins the Book of the Year: Discover Award at the British Book Awards.
