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Best Book of 1901: The Octopus
Rob Magnuson Smith
Rob Magnuson Smith on why Frank Norris' The Octopus is the best book of 1901.
Best Book of 1955: Pedro Páramo
Louise Stern
Louise Stern on why Pedro Páramo is the best book of 1955.
Bad Luck, Britain
Fredrik Sjöberg
‘It was a wonderful day of high summer in the Stockholm archipelago.’
Introduction: What Have We Done
Sigrid Rausing
‘There is an apocalyptic feeling in the air. I write the day after the news that the IS have blown up parts of the ancient site of Palmyra.’
Budapest 2015
Wojciech Tochman
‘To the delight of the little kids, who had seen a good deal of killing in their lives, a middle-aged man blew soap bubbles.’
Refugees and Europe: The Swedish Exception
Göran Rosenberg
‘What would it take to turn the downward spiral of anti-refugee policies around?’
Introduction: Possession
Sigrid Rausing
‘Possession takes many forms, and at the heart of it is death and dereliction, invasion and submission.’
Possession
Bella Pollen
‘The brain is a bureaucratic organ with an almost neurotic determination to balance its books. To account to the department of logic for terror, it calls on the office of imagination to conjure up a worthy vision.’
A Woman’s Worth
Rajeswari Sunder Rajan
Rajeswari Sunder Rajan on the evolution of feminist judgments in India.
Famished Eels
Mary Rokonadravu
‘After one hundred years, this is what I have: a daguerreotype of her in bridal finery; a few stories told and retold in plantations, kitchens, hospitals, airport lounges.’