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The Termite Queen
Olivia Sudjic
‘It dawned on her, the fact sliding ice-cold into her body; now that she had crossed the border into her forties, Alma herself was no longer eligible for the scheme.’
An excerpt from Olivia Sudjic’s third novel.
Granta 166: Generations Online
Generation Gap
‘We meet at various points in the great swathes of the past that neither of us were alive to witness.’
Allen Bratton on a daytrip to a castle with his older boyfriend.
Generation Gap
‘Listening to three white poets, whom I suspect are academics, talk about the state of poetry.’
Oluwaseun Olayiwola eavesdrops on an older generation.
Generation Gap
‘I’d been dubious about his company at first.’
Sarah Moss on watching Shakespeare with her twelve-year-old son.
Generation Gap
‘She didn’t trust us because, to her, tenants were like children.’
Kate Zambreno on negotiating with her older landlady.
Generation Gap
‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’
Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.
Olivia Sudjic
Olivia Sudjic’s debut novel, Sympathy, was a finalist for the Salerno European Book Award and the Collyer Bristow Prize in 2017. Her second novel, Asylum Road, was shortlisted for the Encore Award and the Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize in 2021. Her non-fiction work, Exposure, was named an Irish Times, Evening Standard and White Review Book of the Year. ‘The Termite Queen’ is an excerpt from her novel of the same name, forthcoming from Bloomsbury in 2024.
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