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Walk Laramidia

Swati Rana

‘Imagine all the prodigal / People, hoping only to / Escape every human mistake.’

Kudos

Rachel Cusk

An extract from Kudos, the final novel in Rachel Cusk’s trilogy, following Outline and Transit.

Two Poems

Amy Key

‘She is luscious / and plump like marshmallow; part edible baby, / part nosy neighbour.’

In the Valley of Coachella

Susan Straight

Novelist Susan Straight and photographer Douglas McCulloh on the presidential streets of the ‘real’ Coachella

Who Killed Tolstoy?

Elif Batuman

‘I walked along the birch-lined alleys of Yasnaya Polyana, looking for clues. Snakes were swimming in the pond, making a rippling pattern. Everything here was a museum.’

Fishes and Dragons

Undinė Radzevičiūtė

An excerpt from ‘Fishes and Dragons’ a Lithuanian literary chinoiserie that addresses the interpretation by a European of Qing dynasty culture and art.

Pay for Your Words

Peter Pomerantsev

Peter Pomerantsev downloads his Facebook data. ‘We seem to be caught in a trap: the more we use a word, the more we will be charged for it.’

Danny Denton | Notes on Craft

Danny Denton

‘My tuppence on craft is this: as a writer, you must give your reader space to experience the world of your story (whatever form it takes)’

A Mischief of Rats

Joanna Kavenna

‘They slept curled together in a hammock, little scraps of fur, hearts beating madly.’ Joanna Kavenna on her pet rats, Kat Bjelland and Courtney Love.

The Great Israeli novel of War and Doubt

Anne Meadows

Granta editor Anne Meadows writes about Khirbet Khizeh, the great Israeli novel of war and doubt.

Khirbet Khizeh

S. Yizhar

‘No one knows how to wait like soldiers. There is no time or place that soldiers are not waiting and waiting.’

The one/many problem

Daisy Hildyard

‘Other creatures literally stop me breathing. There are so many of them, and only one of me.’ Daisy Hildyard writes about her research into the animal kingdom.

Kestrel

Cynan Jones

‘A kestrel is not domestic. The one time I tried affection the bird put his beak through my lip.’

Poppy

Caroline Criado Perez

'I never worried about my flat catching fire before Poppy came along.' Caroline Criado Perez on her pet Poppy.

It’s Only Skin

Lily Dunn

‘I knew what it was to be an object of desire, and to be submissive.’ Lily Dunn on being a painter's model as a girl.

About the Cover

Slinkachu & Daniela Silva

Slinkachu talked to our senior designer Daniela Silva about how he created the cover for Animalia.

Our Donald: A Sex Story

Ross Raisin

‘Ducks are very sexual creatures. Domestic ducks, unlike wild ones, are polygamous.’

Extinction

Sharmistha Mohanty

‘even more it was a wish for boundless spaces, a wish for the inexpressibly wide and broad, for the unharnessing of human life’ – New poetry by Sharmistha Mohanty.

A Time for Everything

Karl Ove Knausgaard

‘It can almost seem as if God was genuinely concerned about mankind.’ Translated by James Anderson.

Karl Ove Knausgaard | The Proust Questionnaire

Karl Ove Knausgaard

'What is your most unappealing habit? Maybe all the brain-like chewing gums I leave behind everywhere I work.'

Climb the Mountains

Apricot Irving

'Harm that comes through the hands of those we love must be wrestled with; it does not simply disappear.'

20/20

Tatyana Tolstaya

'I didn't start out a writer, and had no plans of becoming one.' Tatyana Tolstaya, translated from the Russian by Anya Migdal

The Wanderers

Guadalupe Nettel

'Childhood felt like a waiting room, a transitory phase between birth and the life we wanted.'

Lisa Moore | Notes on Craft

Lisa Moore

‘I wanted to explore what a “likeness” is, and how the act of capturing a person through a portrait might compare to writing a character.’

Brother

David Chariandy

An excerpt from David Chariandy's novel Brother

The Infinite Goldfish

Sara Baume

In the beginning, there was the goldfish.

American Journal

Christine Montalbetti

‘All those appetizing vessels exposed and available, O how delightfully vulnerable they are, it brings a tear to the eye.’

Prime

Caoilinn Hughes

‘Miss Lynch teaches us such things. Things that are difficult to know.’

The Advent of the AI Co-Author

Stuart Turton

Stuart Turton on the advent of AI co-authors

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned

Wells Tower

‘Thanks to the easy wind bellying our sails, we crossed fast and sighted the island six days early.’

Moose Magic

Téa Obreht

Téa Obreht on a chance encounter with a moose in Wyoming, for Granta 142: Animalia

Johnny Kingdom

Chris Power

'Andy doesn't like any of the names for what he does. He rejects 'impersonator', and resists 'tribute act', although he knows it comes closest.' From Chris Power's exceptional collection of short fiction, Mothers

Rainbow People

Nicholas Mosley

‘This journey around the outskirts of the Jungle went in a little and came out wondering, well that is not what I would have called a jungle.’

A Not-So-Pretty History of Pet Care

Daniel Magariel

‘One day after the next I would figure out what was needed, learn from my mistakes, pay attention to what worked.’

Cumbrian Fell Pony

Sarah Hall

Sarah Hall writes about the Cumbrian fell pony for Granta 142: Animalia.