Generation Gap
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The Life, Old Age and Death of a Woman of the People
Didier Eribon
‘How little one knows, really, about one’s parents.’
Memoir by Didier Eribon translated by Michael Lucey.
David Attenborough
K Patrick
‘Motherhood is this chapter, / we all love a mother, / disastrous as it is.’
Poetry by K Patrick.
The Trouble with Old Men
Samuel Moyn
‘The choicest parts of the world’s richest cities, according to demographers, are dense with aged residents.’
Samuel Moyn on gerontocracy.
Calais to Dover
Jana Prikryl
‘If you need a renewable resource / then look in the direction of the sea. / It’s deep as feelings you didn’t know you had.’
Poetry by Jana Prikryl.
Five O’Clock Somewhere
Gary Indiana
‘It’s when things fail to return to normal, that finally you get it: this is normal.’
Gary Indiana on growing older.
And That’s How I Became a Woman
Vigdis Hjorth
‘Finn Lykke opened the door wearing jeans and a freshly-ironed, white shirt, he had made an effort.’
Fiction by Vigdis Hjorth, translated by Charlotte Barslund.
And Of The Son
Rachel Connolly
‘There’s something in her face. Adoration? I mean, she’s drunk. But she clearly has a thing for me.’
Fiction by Rachel Connolly.
Gettysburg
Jessi Jezewska Stevens
‘One did not have high hopes for Gettysburg. Nor for Pennsylvania in general. Having grown up in Indiana, Diana felt she’d earned her condescension.’
Fiction by Jessi Jezewska Stevens.
Cult
Marcus Ong Kah Ho
‘The parties always had a good mix of men and women, although more often than not there were more good-looking women than men.’
Fiction by Marcus Ong Kah Ho.
From Zanzibar to Marbach
Abdulrazak Gurnah
‘The tragedies inflicted on the people of East Africa as a result of European rivalries are belittled and forgotten.’
Abdulrazak Gurnah on German East Africa.
What the Germans Left Behind
Anna Parker
‘My Czech family’s house stands on a geopolitical rift: it occupies a place the political storms sweep through, uprooting everything that is settled.’
An essay by Anna Parker.
Solo Poly
Sophie Frances Kemp
‘When you are a female this is what happens: if you are not selected to be a mate by age twenty-seven, you are asked to get on the bus.’
Fiction by Sophie Frances Kemp.
The Legion
Shaun Wilson
‘A should probably write that it hit uz like a smack in the guts, or the red mist cem down or sumet like that, but in all honesty, a can just remember feelen upset.’
New fiction by Shaun Wilson.
Internal Affairs
Andrea Brady
‘The burden in law on the pregnant person is to show that they are at risk, in need; they must ask, and hope, rather than demand.’
Memoir by Andrea Brady.
In Conversation
Lisa Robertson & Kate Briggs
‘The description becomes a psychic image, a political image of transformational potency.’
Kate Briggs and Lisa Robertson discuss becoming novelists, description as a political tool, and endings.
Not a River
Selva Almada
‘He takes the knife, cuts the barb from the body, sends it back to the depths of the river.’
An extract from Not a River by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott.
Losing Irina
Aria Aber
‘I did sometimes fantasize about her Ur-wound, the traumatic memory image from which her asceticism sprung.’
Fiction from Aria Aber.
Don’t Wake Me Up Too Soon
Daniel Kehlmann
‘Satire only comes into its own against the powerful; against the powerless it is cheap mockery from above.’
Daniel Kehlmann on writing, translated from the German by Ross Benjamin
In the Unlikely Event of a Loss of Cabin Pressure
Juan S. Guse
‘News of the second contact sent the whole camp into turmoil. After long weeks spent searching in vain, a new vitality returned.’
Fiction from Juan S. Guse, translated by Gwen Clayton.
Evaporation in the Boundary Zone
Ilija Matusko
‘From a dish washer to an author who writes about washing dishes.’
Memoir by Ilija Matusko, translated by Jen Calleja.
He Cleans
Valeria Gordeev
‘He cleans. Cleans the sink, cleans the plughole, takes out the sink strainer and cleans the underside.’
Fiction by Valeria Gordeev, translated by Imogen Taylor.
Lentille
Urs Mannhart
‘I can’t help Lentille. Even though she roars. As long as she roars, I won’t be able to work.’
An essay from Urs Mannhart, translated by Christine Müller
The Blind
Ewan Gass
‘People, he thought, swinging his legs, were only who they were in relation to other people.’
Fiction by Ewan Gass.
Haruspex
Rebecca May Johnson
‘How can I accept a trauma or a loss that I cannot define?’
Rebecca May Johnson on pregnancy and divining the future.
The Invisible Harbour
Deniz Utlu
‘Only from a distance does the observer understand the object that remained an enigma from close up.’
Fiction by Deniz Utlu, translated by Jackie Smith.
Once Again, Germany Defines Who Is a Jew | Part II
George Prochnik, Emily Dische-Becker & Eyal Weizman
‘Turning to Germany, it seems that Jews are the only ones entitled to historical context, to history, and also to trauma. Palestinian history is denied.’
George Prochnik in conversation with Emily Dische-Becker and Eyal Weizman, after 7 October 2023.
Beginning and End
Lukas Maisel
‘If she really knew how beautiful she was, she would hardly have met up with him, so it was best not to tell her.’
Fiction by Lukas Maisel, translated by Ruth Martin.
Hades Baedeker
Ken Chen
‘You may need to gaze at death indirectly, through a mirror crafted into a shield.’
Poetry by Ken Chen.
Introduction
Thomas Meaney
‘This issue of Granta collects writing headed full tilt in the opposite direction from the literary lassitude of the land.’
The editor introduces the issue.
Today We Just Say Germany
Alexander Kluge
‘A philosopher will reflect on the world from any place.’
Alexander Kluge on Germany, translated by Peter Kuras.
