Cairo Song
Sort by:
Kilinochchi
Himali McInnes
‘Parents should not have to bury their children. I will come to you, she whispers.’
Fiction by Himali McInnes.
Jealous Laughter
Joanna Biggs
‘She could not make me see my best qualities, but she could sit with me.’
Joanna Biggs on literary friendships between women.
Stupid Girls
Rhian Sasseen
‘It was 1 a.m., and it was Los Angeles; they were used to indiscretion.’
A story by Rhian Sasseen.
Stockholm
Yan Ge
‘I’m curious to know what you did with your milk there, Jacob said. Did you dump it, or, did you drink it?’
A story by Yan Ge.
Podcast | Claire-Louise Bennett
Claire-Louise Bennett
‘I want the reader to be conscious of reading and not being just drawn into the book and forgetting themselves and forgetting their life.’
Claire-Louise Bennett on her novel Checkout 19.
Giver
Molly Lynch
‘A single drop of milk clings to my right nipple like a promise. Or a taunt.’
A short story by Molly Lynch.
Podcast | Lynne Tillman
Lynne Tillman
‘In a sense we are always haunted by our past and what psychoanalysis is, for me, is not about cure but about understanding those ghosts.’
Lynne Tillman on her books Weird Fucks and Haunted Houses.
Introduction
Sigrid Rausing
‘What does the list tell us about the next generation or the state of the nation?’
The editor introduces the issue.
The Cloud Factory
Graeme Armstrong
‘There’s this paradoxical nostalgia where even though yi suffered, yi miss it.’
Memoir by Graeme Armstrong.
A Certain King
Jennifer Atkins
‘I didn’t think she was happy; I thought she was in love, but I didn’t know what that told me, if it told me anything.’
Fiction by Jennifer Atkins.
The Hair Baby
Sara Baume
‘She has been ten for a month and she does not like it. She carries the weight of her extra digit like a chain-mail vest.’
Fiction by Sara Baume.
A Dying Tongue
Sarah Bernstein
‘What needs explaining was that, and it was a funny thing, a very funny thing, I did not speak the language.’
An extract from Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein.
Universality
Natasha Brown
‘She boils her sentences down to high-sucrose sweeties and calibrates her tone for maximum engagement.’
Fiction by Natasha Brown.
Doubtful Sound
Eleanor Catton
‘I knew that Dominic had cheated on me. I couldn’t tell you when, or who, or how many times, but I was certain that he had.’
Fiction by Eleanor Catton.
She’s Always Hungry
Eliza Clark
‘I could hear the sea, and I could hear my own name.’
Fiction by Eliza Clark.
The Room-Service Waiter
Tom Crewe
‘There was to be an exhibition. There were lots of pictures like his, apparently – of waiters, pastry cooks, valets, bellboys.’
A story by Tom Crewe.
Strangers at the Port
Lauren Aimee Curtis
‘The other islands in the archipelago had their active volcanoes; now we had the men.’
An extract from Lauren Aimee Curtis’s forthcoming novel.
Ivor
Camilla Grudova
‘We were sent to Wakeley Boarding School aged eight for Year Five and stayed on until Year Twenty.’
Fiction by Camilla Grudova.
A Note in the Margin
Isabella Hammad
‘I register that phrase with pleasure, my brother.’
Isabella Hammad on migration, mentors and disappointment.
Theories of Care
Sophie Mackintosh
‘The monstrous years of my late teens lay lined up alongside the rest of my life like bullets in a gun.’
A story by Sophie Mackintosh.
Circles
Anna Metcalfe
‘He was grumpy in a way that I enjoyed. It reassured me that he was easily displeased – he was discerning, I thought.’
Fiction by Anna Metcalfe.
Wales
Thomas Morris
‘If Wales win tonight, everything will turn out okay.’
Thomas Morris on football, family and financial precarity.
Kweku
Derek Owusu
‘I don’t remember his face, nor him as a whole.’
Derek Owusu on fathers and family.
Mrs S
K Patrick
‘Without waiting for me she removes her white shirt. Each button a piece of my own spine, undone.’
An extract from Mrs S by K Patrick.
Best Last Minute Spa Deal for Under £40
Yara Rodrigues Fowler
‘She rings a tiny cymbal over your body. She says, The experience is finished now.’
A story by Yara Rodrigues Fowler.
Gunk
Saba Sams
‘I followed him onto the dancefloor and he put his hands on my hips as if he’d known me for at least an hour.’
Fiction by Saba Sams.
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.
Rostrum
Eley Williams
‘Certainly this kind of thing just happened sometimes – it was a glitch, an unfortunate error, and could happen to anyone.’
Fiction by Eley Williams.
The University of Nigeria
Ike Anya
‘There is a sense of carnival mingled with outrage, especially for us since this is our first demonstration.’
Ike Anya on universities, financial cuts and student protest.
Two Poems
Bob Hicok
‘What’s your policy on fog? When it gets in bed with you, who’s on top?’
Poetry by Bob Hicok.
Podcast | Vanessa Onwuemezi
Vanessa Onwuemezi
‘I think sometimes that when things are really explained to you, you kind of cheat someone from experiencing a deeper feeling.’
Vanessa Onwuemezi talks about her book Dark Neighbourhood.
Interview
Margo Jefferson & Guy Gunaratne
Guy Gunaratne interviewed Margo Jefferson after the winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize was announced, and they discussed her prize-winning book, Constructing a Nervous System.
Two Poems
Raymond Antrobus
‘The crack / and spit of sickness is everywhere, everyone / is tangled in the mess.’
Poetry by Raymond Antrobus.
On Writing ‘Blind Bitter Happiness’
Adam Mars-Jones
‘When I was put on Granta’s first Best of Young British Novelists list in 1983, no novel of mine had been published.’
