The Emotional Life of Plants
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Yena
Che Yeun
‘Close, the way any two girls around here grow close, because there isn’t much else to do, and anyone who makes you forget how little there is to do, anyone who makes your heart race, is someone you suddenly cannot live without.’
Short fiction by Che Yeun.
Binyavanga
Pwaangulongii Dauod
‘There are many writers, including myself, who owe their careers to Binyavanga. He was the most generous writer of his generation.’
Pwaangulongii Dauod remembers the late Binyavanga Wainaina.
Japanese Wives
Noriko Hayashi
‘Every time I remember that moment, I can’t help but cry. I was only twenty-one years old.’
A photoessay by Noriko Hayashi.
The Second Career of Michael Riegels
Oliver Bullough
‘The new law was technical and complicated, but created something genuinely new: the international business company, a hyper-deregulated shell corporation.’
Oliver Bullough investigates the history of shell companies in the British Virgin Islands.
The novel
Jack Underwood
‘Only they don’t know / that this silence is what they yearn for.’
A new poem by Jack Underwood.
This time
Jack Underwood
‘I’m going to give them a linear sense of time, just one direction, all the way!’
A new poem by Jack Underwood.
In Conversation
Eimear McBride
‘Spending time in a place in which you have no personal stake breeds a peculiar kind of contemplativeness.’
History is a Music Box
Channa Riedel
‘My hands are cupped around the names written on the tablets of stone.’
Oath to the Queen
Xiaolu Guo
Xiaolu Guo on The Archers, the Life in the UK Test and swearing allegiance to the Queen.
Bear
Naomi Ishiguro
‘My wife and I lay side by side, the bear looming over us in the same way a crucifixion scene looms above the pews inside a Catholic church.’
Short fiction by Naomi Ishiguro.
Jaan Kaplinski | On Europe
Jaan Kaplinski
‘For European thinkers, defining things has always been a serious hobby.’
Jaan Kaplinski on Europe.
Indelicacy
Amina Cain
‘Every morning and night I walked through that city, to and from the museum.’
From Amina Cain’s new novel.
The Third Rainbow Girl
Emma Copley Eisenberg
‘I felt ruined by my time in Pocahontas County – no other place would ever be so good.’
An excerpt from Emma Copley Eisenberg’s The Third Rainbow Girl.
Late Arrival
Clemens Meyer
Two women working shifts in a train station make a connection in this short story translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire.
The Shop
Anthony Veasna So
‘I am not saying you cannot be gay. How hard is it to be normal and gay?’
The Normal Life
Dulce Maria Cardoso
‘Blood had started to come out from within, thick and dark blood that forced me to use sanitary pads every month.’
Low
Jeet Thayil
‘Quitting drugs – what an idea. How final and unaccommodating. Like being left without faith or protection in a pagan world.’ An extract from Jeet Thayil’s Low.
No Justice, No Peace
Chris Knapp
Chris Knapp on the systemic racism and violence of the French police, and the grassroots organisations that are campaigning for change.
Five Images from the Life of Georg Trakl
Mathias Énard
‘We think we see Georg Trakl in this last photograph but we do not see him.’
Goat-Herd Errant: Jim Corbett and the American borderlands
William Atkins
‘The book is a manifesto for the revival of pastoral nomadism – leading goats from pasture to pasture and surviving on their milk and wild plants.’ William Atkins on Jim Corbett’s Goatwalking.
Best Book of 1987: The Door
Hannah Williams
‘Szabó offers a veneration of the rituals of the everyday, for how pride in what we do, in how we give to others, can elevate us.’ Hannah Williams on The Door by Magda Szabó, the best book of 1987.
Best Book of Any Year: A Thousand and One Nights
Mazen Maarouf
Mazen Maarouf on why A Thousand and One Nights is the best book of any year.
Best Book of 2013:
The Crocodiles
Noor Naga
Noor Naga on why The Crocodiles by Youssef Rakha is the best book of 2013.
Best Book of 1928: Quicksand
Lucy Ives
Lucy Ives argues that Nella Larsen – author of ‘terse, obsessively observed fiction’ – penned the best book of 1928.
Don’t Look at Me Like That
Diana Athill
‘When I was at school I used to think that everyone disliked me, and it wasn’t far from true.’
Best Book of 2014: H is for Hawk
Chigozie Obioma
Chigozie Obioma on Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk, the best book of 2014.
Best book of 2015: The Argonauts
Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Lucia Osborne-Crowley on why The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson is the best book of 2015.
Best Book of 1993: The Smell of Apples
Magogodi oaMphela Makhene
Magogodi oaMphela Makhene on Mark Behr’s The Smell of Apples.
