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Diego Garcia
Simon Winchester
‘How do you persuade a thousand dogs to walk into a fire? How do you persuade them, as it were, to commit suttee?’
The Metaphoreign Body
Tod Wodicka
‘Finally, I was reduced to a piece of matter, solid and real and mute and totally absorbed inside a foreign system.’
Italo Calvino
John Updike
‘Post-modernism, if it can be said to exist at all, had in Calvino its most seductive showman.’
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.’
The Coral Reef
Tran Vu
'"So, our last night of socialism," Dzung said as he squatted down beside me. I pulled two cigarettes out of my pocket and handed one to him, but didn't reply.'
A Norwegian Nightmare
Alf Kjetil Walgermo
‘Could we somehow have avoided feeding the killer at our own breast?’
Introducing Daniel Galera
Alejandro Zambra
‘It’s hard to introduce Daniel Galera’s tale without resorting to adjectives that are more likely to arouse distrust than interest.’
Getting The Words Out
John Updike
‘No, it is not confrontation but some wish to avoid it, some hasty wish to please, that betrays my flow of speech.’
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.’
The Sins of the Flesh
Margaret Visser
‘The message that vegetarianism imparts to the rest of us is ascetic and exclusive.’
Jihad Redux
Declan Walsh
‘American patience snapped, and Washington took matters into its own hands.’
Mrs de Pelet
Evie Wyld
‘I see her with her hands cupped in front of her shouting ‘The “O”, ladies, The Vaginal O’ as we read Shakespeare.’
Cricket in Samoa
Gavin Young
‘Balls flew towards the beach or into dense jungle. Enthusiastic young fielders tumbled head over heels in the morning glories. Village elders, large, heavy-breasted, critical men, lay in the shade on cushions discussing the course of play like contented sea lions on their favourite rocks.’
