Explore Essays and memoir
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The Trouble with Old Men
Samuel Moyn
‘The choicest parts of the world’s richest cities, according to demographers, are dense with aged residents.’
Samuel Moyn on gerontocracy.
Five O’Clock Somewhere
Gary Indiana
‘It’s when things fail to return to normal, that finally you get it: this is normal.’
Gary Indiana on growing older.
From Zanzibar to Marbach
Abdulrazak Gurnah
‘The tragedies inflicted on the people of East Africa as a result of European rivalries are belittled and forgotten.’
Abdulrazak Gurnah on German East Africa.
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.
Internal Affairs
Andrea Brady
‘The burden in law on the pregnant person is to show that they are at risk, in need; they must ask, and hope, rather than demand.’
Memoir by Andrea Brady.
Don’t Wake Me Up Too Soon
Daniel Kehlmann
‘Satire only comes into its own against the powerful; against the powerless it is cheap mockery from above.’
Daniel Kehlmann on writing, translated from the German by Ross Benjamin
Evaporation in the Boundary Zone
Ilija Matusko
‘From a dish washer to an author who writes about washing dishes.’
Memoir by Ilija Matusko, translated by Jen Calleja.
Lentille
Urs Mannhart
‘I can’t help Lentille. Even though she roars. As long as she roars, I won’t be able to work.’
An essay from Urs Mannhart, translated by Christine Müller
Haruspex
Rebecca May Johnson
‘How can I accept a trauma or a loss that I cannot define?’
Rebecca May Johnson on pregnancy and divining the future.
Introduction
Thomas Meaney
‘This issue of Granta collects writing headed full tilt in the opposite direction from the literary lassitude of the land.’
The editor introduces the issue.
