New Writing on Granta.com
Fiction|The Online Edition
Pax Domestica
Victor Heringer
Translated by James Young
‘The whole family: yay. I love my family. (Don’t I.)’
Fiction by Victor Heringer, translated by James Young.
Essays & Memoir|Issue 169
Paper People
Yun Sheng
‘Otome games are about women writing romance plots designed to please women – paper hubbies and their voice actors are just a conduit to make the experience more believable.’ Yun Sheng on the rise of virtual love in China.
In Conversation|The Online Edition
In Conversation
Olivia Laing & Jamaica Kincaid
‘The garden is actually an archive, every plant bringing with it a narrative of past injustice, upheaval, shifts in wealth and taste.’
Olivia Laing and Jamaica Kincaid discuss the political significance of the garden.
Essays & Memoir|The Online Edition
Doing the Work
Geoff Dyer
‘My life is full of regrets – I sometimes think I regret everything about my life – but I’ve never regretted the time spent riding the rails of Thatcher’s Britain.’
Geoff Dyer on conducting market research in the eighties.
Fiction|Issue 169
Piranhas and Us
Can Xue
Translated by Annelise Finegan
‘An enormous black form rose from the water. Uncle Feng told me in a low voice to run fast.’ Fiction by Can Xue, translated by Annelise Finegan.
Granta 169: China
Tomorrow I’ll Get Past It
Yu Hua
‘Every time I tried to write more, it turned out to be a fruitless endeavor – I felt like I was trapped in a sealed room with no windows.’
Fiction by Yu Hua, translated by Michael Berry.
Adrift in the South
Xiao Hai
‘Finally! I thought. Now I get to work in a big factory. I was fifteen and a half years old. I was a child laborer.’
Xiao Hai on coming of age in the factories of Shenzhen, translated by Tony Hao.
Black Pig Hair, White Pig Hair
Yan Lianke
‘Are you here to accept punishment on the mayor’s behalf ? This is a great opportunity. People burn incense for a chance like this.’
A short story by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas.
Speedwell
Zhang Yueran
‘Fiction is a kind of spell, I said, and analysing a story is an exorcism. It loses all its mystery.’
Fiction by Zhang Yueran, translated by Jeremy Tiang.
Hunter
Shuang Xuetao
‘Lu Dong is a fifth-rate actor – that’s by his own ranking system.’
Fiction by Shuang Xuetao, translated by Jeremy Tiang.
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.
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.
