The War Artist
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Jesus Who?
Alison Smith
‘Jesus came walking across the lawn, a grin on his face. I waved. “Hi, Jesus.”’
St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
Karen Russell
‘Sister Josephine tasted like sweat and freckles. She smelled easy to kill.’
Nadeem Aslam | God and Me
Nadeem Aslam
‘I loved—and continue to love—the pages of certain copies of the Qur’an.’
God and Me
Geoff Dyer
‘All my religious experiences—if we can call them that—have been drug-related.’
God and Me
Pankaj Mishra
‘I was unfortunate to know a Christianity so tainted by colonialism and racial distrust.’
God and Me
Diana Athill
‘Perhaps it’s just that the human mind is incapable of imagining anything that doesn’t begin.’
God and Me
Blake Morrison
‘My hopes weren’t high, even to begin with, so I felt no bitterness when He didn’t reveal Himself’
God and Me
Richard Mabey
‘It’s always been like this for me with spirituality. I catch a whiff of the numinous, and it turns visceral in a moment.’
God and Me
Andrew Martin
‘At the moment, I would say that depends what you mean by ‘believe’ and what you mean by “God”’
God and Me
Lucretia Stewart
‘It’s almost impossible to describe how it feels to believe in God. There really aren’t words elevated enough to explain it.’
Nell Freudenberger | God and Me
Nell Freudenberger
‘When I was seven, I sat down to draw God. God wore a pirate shirt, purple harem pants and a red fez.’
The Many Voices of Africa
John Ryle
‘This is worth remembering: if it were not for Africa we would not be here at all.’
The Master
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
‘The Master was a little crazy; he had spent too many years reading books overseas’
The War of the Ears
Moses Isegawa
‘It was a victory to arrive home. Ma Beeda always celebrated with a strong cup of tea.’
Passport Control
Kwame Dawes
‘I am Ghanaian. This is my legal label. I was born there. It is my inheritance.’
Gifted
Segun Afolabi
‘The boys' eyes grazed the carpet and then each other guiltily. The youngest tried not to smile with shame.’
Legacies
Adewale Maja-Pearce
‘When I was ten years old, my father hit my mother so hard that she suffered permanent damage to her right ear.’
Beethoven Was One Sixteenth Black
Nadine Gordimer
‘Once there were blacks wanting to be white. Now there are whites wanting to be black.’
The Witch’s Dog
Helon Habila
‘The old witch, Nana Mudo, lived alone with her dog on the other side of the grove.’
Policeman to the World
Daniel Bergner
‘The UN's shiny red and white SUVs were too conspicuous, and the entire Liberian police force had three vehicles’
Antediluvian
John Biguenet
‘To the inexperienced, hurricane stories always sound like exaggerations.’
Motley Notes
Ian Jack
‘Generalisations about the national psyche – supposing there is one – must always be treated with suspicion.’
Ian Jack on the eve of the 7/7 bombings.
Wish You Were Here
Simon Gray
‘From contemptuous wit to unfathomable pain, the centre always held, Alan was always there.’
When Skateboards Will Be Free
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh
‘My mother and father believe that the United States is destined one day to be engulfed in a socialist revolution.’
The Visiting Child
Karen E. Bender
‘Jane needed a stranger in the kitchen, someone to speak because she could not.’
Family Pictures
Liz Jobey & Robin Grierson
‘Photography always reveals truths about the relationship between the photographer and the person being photographed.’
The Great Wall
Ismail Kadare
‘What China loses by the sword it retakes by silk.’
A short story by Ismail Kadare, translated by David Bellos.
White Sands
Geoff Dyer
‘Now that we were out of danger it seemed possible that there had never been any danger.’
