The Dig
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A Bar on North Avenue
Roger Ebert
‘We regulars knew each other. We dated each other. We slept with each other.’
Introducing Chicago
John Freeman
John Freeman introduces Granta’s new issue, celebrating the city of Chicago, a cultural and artistic hub and home to some of the world’s greatest writers and thinkers.
After Lockerbie
George Rosie
‘I’ve seen many images from the Lockerbie calamity since but none has stayed with me like the picture of Shannon’s pretty, smiling face.’
The Sweetmaker of Kabul
Oliver Englehart
‘The Mandayee bazaar in Kabul’s old city is no tourist souk. Stop to gawp at some oddity of life here and you might be trampled under the mucky wheels of an overladen handcart.’
Only Connect
Anita Sethi
‘The performativity of the experience is in some respects akin to watching real-life television; an unfolding soap opera in which the players are not fictional.’
An Education
Lynn Barber
‘The whole meeting seemed completely unreal but then everything at that time seemed unreal, so I said ‘Yes, by all means make the film,’ and went back to the hospital and forgot about her.’
Louis de Bernières | Interview
Anita Sethi
‘At four o’clock in the morning, when Louis de Bernières has lines of poetry repeating in his head which won’t stop gnawing away, he writes them down.‘
The Encirclement
Tamas Dobozy
‘Teleki would gasp and sputter and grow red in the face and the audience would love it.’ Tamas Dobozy in Granta 107
Capital Gains
Rana Dasgupta
‘The society that has emerged in post-liberalization India is one consumed both by euphoria and dread.’
From the Journals of Mahmoud Darwish 1941–2008
Mahmoud Darwish
‘I’m alive even though I feel no pain.’
The Rule of Tagame
Kenzaburō Ōe
‘Kogito was lying on the narrow army cot in his study, his ears enveloped in giant headphones, listening intently.’
Call Me By My Proper Name
Rupert Thomson
‘My mother’s brother was christened Cedric, but people always called him Joe.’
Airships
Javier Marías
‘We live in an age that tends to depersonalize even people and is, in principle, averse to anthropomorphism.’
The Mind-Child: Remembering J.G. Ballard
Will Self
‘I had been struggling – as every wannabe writer should – with what it was that I could conceivably write.’
Will Self on the influence of J.G. Ballard.
Body Snatchers
William T. Vollmann
‘The All-American Canal was now dark black with phosphorescent streaks where the border’s eyes stained it with yellow tears.’
One Ridge Over
Josh Weil
‘Some mornings I see him coming up through the mist. The grey shape of a long-haired man carrying a long-barreled gun amid the bare grey branches of the old apple trees.’
Where I’m Calling From
Ariel Leve
‘Pretentiousness was non-existent. Morals were unambiguous and pure.’
Eleanor Catton | Interview
Eleanor Catton
Eleanor Catton, author of the critically acclaimed, Betty Trask-award-winning debut novel, The Rehearsal, talks to Granta.
Growing up with the King of Pop
Marlon James
‘The thrill of Thriller was being part of something global and local at once.’
Beginning, End | New Voices
Jessica Soffer
‘I walked behind you. You led the rallies. I lost my mother. You rubbed my back.’
After the Affair
Maud Newton & Alexander Chee
‘Reading it, I thought, this must be what it was like to be his lover. To wait and wait for him to eventually say something to you, while he talked about everything else.’
Ha Jin | Interview
Ha Jin & Helen Gordon
‘My reason for writing in English is twofold: to separate my existence from the state power of China and to preserve the integrity of my work.’
A question of identity
Dubravka Ugrešić
‘One of the first things a child learns is the sentiment: My country is… And so begins the homeland briefing that lasts from the cradle to the grave.’
Tales From Literary Festivals
Anita Sethi
‘The imagination can also be a passport to places beyond the realms of our own experience, a lesson learned at festivals which have at their core the concept of storytelling.’
Jhumpa Lahiri and Mavis Gallant
Jhumpa Lahiri, Mavis Gallant & Rosalind Porter
‘Gallant is considered one of the greatest short-story writers of all time’.
John Freeman | Interview
John Freeman & Roy Robins
‘I think you know right away if a piece of writing is good. Does it move me? Does it have intensity? Is it beautiful?’
A Summer’s Evening in Beijing
Elizabeth Pisani
‘The air is light with the intoxicating fumes of impending martyrdom.’
Proximity People
Jonathan Lethem
‘People who unfriend their friends while friending their unfriends. People who do not acknowledge the person. Persons who are not personal.’
Love in the Time of Swine Flu
Alexis Okeowo
‘Being mask-less in the constant sea of blue surgical face masks made me feel like I was an extra on a movie set they forgot to put in costume.’
Editor’s Letter
Alex Clark
‘In 1979, when Bill Buford introduced his first issue of Granta, a penetrating, bravura survey of American fiction, he proclaimed his efforts to be ‘a kind of energetic failure’.’
