‘It was like trying to go back to before the earthquake, to before knowledge.’
After the long flight across the Pacific, after the night in the tiny hotel room selected so that I could walk to the world’s busiest train station in the morning, after the train north to the area most impacted by the tsunami in the Great Tōhoku earthquake of 11 March 2011, after the meetings am…
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‘I think there should be a National Service of Hospitality. The best way to see the true face of humanity is to serve it a plate of chips.’
Camilla Grudova on bad-mannered customers.
‘Anyone who has ever worked night shifts will understand the vertiginous feeling that comes with staring down the day from the wrong end.’
A.K. Blakemore on working nights.
‘I was constantly reading job ads, trying to find my holy grail – a job I could stand to do, and someone foolish enough to hire me.’
Sandra Newman on learning how to play professional blackjack.
‘I loved being a receptionist. What I loved about it was playing the part of being a receptionist.’
Emily Berry on being a temporary office worker.
‘Every part of you would swell, including your eyeballs, and no matter how much water you drank, you were always dehydrated.’
Junot Díaz on working for a steel mill.
Rebecca Solnit discusses interweaving personal narratives with the lives of Mary Shelley and Che Guevara, paradoxes and Beyoncé.
‘You don’t understand. The country where I used to live is now gone.’
‘How is it possible we lived in that same house? Although every house in that neighborhood looked more or less alike.’ A story by Kate Zambreno.
‘I wondered how I could feel so at home in a place that was not mine.’
An excerpt from Jessica Au's novel Cold Enough for Snow.
An excerpt from Earthlings, translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori.
