‘This is why he will survive this war to return to his wife and daughter, barring a blind bullet, an errant piece of shrapnel, some careless act of destiny.’
Overhead bullets concuss the air, disrupt Nzinga’s world. There’s no aim to the gunfire, no malice. A government patrol has stumbled on her father’s distant sentries, both sides firing blind in their mutual retreat.
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‘Feelings can be very obscure but numbers never lie.’
Kevin Brazil on metrics, obsession and fitness.
‘An intense workout is an ecstasy of punishment packaged as self-improvement.’
Mary Wellesley on exercise, ritual and Barry’s Bootcamp.
‘I was not good at sports because I would not do sports because I did not have the body for sports because I would not do sports.’
Saba Sams on girlhood, embodiment and avoiding sports.
‘Following United rarely brings me any great joy and most often it depresses me. If I could disengage, I would.’
Jonny Thakkar on Manchester United.
‘I deployed my body against an opponent like a blunt and effective instrument.’
John Patrick McHugh on playing Gaelic football.
‘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.
‘It is rare to see photos of Daqing from the 1960s that are not part of the official feting of the oil boom.’
Photography by Haoihui Liu, introduced by Granta.
‘Fifty years I’ve played here, except for stretches in Arizona and Mississippi, after my divorce.’
Fiction by Kate Lister Campbell.
‘I spend the afternoon scarifying ceilings. My neck and shoulders are killing me by the time I leave.’
Fiction by Rue Baldry.
‘Unnatural is as fitting a term as any to describe the life Athill went on to lead, in that the choices she makes continually push against the conventions of her upbringing, class and gender. ’
