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Comme

Paul Dalla Rosa

‘Because I spent a large amount of time convincing people to buy clothing they would never actually wear, it was easy to convince myself the same.’

Common Whipping

Naben Ruthnum

A young film composer turns to prostitution in a short story by Naben Ruthnum, set in a Rome of the early 1970s.

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned

Wells Tower

‘Thanks to the easy wind bellying our sails, we crossed fast and sighted the island six days early.’

Fishes and Dragons

Undinė Radzevičiūtė

An excerpt from ‘Fishes and Dragons’ a Lithuanian literary chinoiserie that addresses the interpretation by a European of Qing dynasty culture and art.

Florianópolis

Paulo Scott

‘Even in a year in which Brazilians are not that excited about the competition, once the ref whistles and the match kicks off, an entire nation is frozen, hypnotised before their television screens. It’s the great truce, the great anaesthetic.’

Hot Rain

Terese Svoboda

A new story from Terese Svoboda about love, money and power in the hands of an aging parent.

Johnny Kingdom

Chris Power

'Andy doesn't like any of the names for what he does. He rejects 'impersonator', and resists 'tribute act', although he knows it comes closest.' From Chris Power's exceptional collection of short fiction, Mothers

Letter of Apology

Maria Reva

‘One can only argue with an intellectual like Konstantyn Illych if one speaks to him on his level.’

Normal People

Sally Rooney

‘After the first time they had sex, Marianne stayed the night in his house.’ New fiction from Sally Rooney.

Oh, the Obvious

Christine Schutt

‘A wizened spring, the sickly prickly pear and organ pipe cacti were so riddled with holes they might have been targets.’

Painter to the King

Amy Sackville

This is an excerpt from Painter to the King, Amy Sackville's account of the life of Diego Velázquez. Now available from Granta Books.

Rachel Reaches Out

Ben Pester

‘She hit send and sighed as the email-whoosh came through her headphones. Theo was sitting at his desk less than six metres away.’

Radical Sufficiency

Jess Row

‘We have to reverse-engineer our genius so that we can appreciate the simple things.’

Slum Wolf

Tadao Tsuge

‘It was a red-light district and a plywood market and a town of hoodlums in one. I’ll add one more thing: The whole place stunk of sewage.’