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Explore Essays and memoir

Generation Gap

Lynne Tillman

‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’

Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.

Ecce Senex: Stephen James Joyce

James Scudamore

‘He was “a Joyce, not a Joycean”, yet considered himself the supreme arbiter of what constituted valuable Joyce scholarship. At the same time, he admitted that he rarely read anything in full.’

James Scudamore on trying to ghostwrite Stephen James Joyce's memoir.

Lifetimes of the Soviet Union

Yuri Slezkine

‘Bolshevism, like most millenarian movements, proved a one-generation phenomenon.’

Yuri Slezkine on Soviet history and the generational arc of revolution.

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.

From the Planetarium

Ryan Ruby

‘For some it is an endpoint, for others a tear in the very fabric of time.’

Ryan Ruby on the fall of the Berlin wall and the Zeiss-Großplanetarium.

The Killing of a Berlin Power Broker

Peter Richter

‘Why does the centre of Berlin look like an abandoned shopping mall on the edge of Omaha?’

An essay from Peter Richter, translated by Shaun Whiteside.

In the Movie Bunker

Lutz Seiler

‘On 6 April 1981, I walked into the District Conscription Office, thereby obeying the very first command of my time as a soldier.’

Memoir from Lutz Seiler, translated by Martyn Crucefix.

The Solution is Within

Évelyne Trouillot

‘How are we living? Every morning we wake up and wonder what happened last night.’

Évelyne Trouillot on the crisis in Haiti.

Introduction

Sigrid Rausing

‘I came to the magazine in 2005 and took over the editorship in 2013.’

Sigrid Rausing introduces her last issue.

Soundscapes of Phnom Penh

Anjan Sundaram

‘From my bronze-painted balcony, I chronicled the sounds of Phnom Penh’s private industry.’

Anjan Sundaram on the sound of corruption in Cambodia.

Endurance

Maartje Scheltens

Four Organs allows us to step out of time and briefly inhabit infinity.’

Maartje Scheltens on Steve Reich, repetition and discomfort.

Mute Tree

Y-Dang Troeung

‘When and where does the crisis of war begin and end?’

Y-Dang Troeung on the longevity of war.

Introduction

Sigrid Rausing

‘What does the list tell us about the next generation or the state of the nation?’

The editor introduces the issue.

On Literary Celebrity

Caryl Phillips

Caryl Phillips on being chosen as a Best of Young British Novelists in 1993 and the nascent culture of literary celebrity.