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from Long Talking Bad Conditions Blues
Ronald Sukenick
‘when rising expectations hit the upcoming decline hell was going to break loose it was already starting to break loose’
To Zagreb
Yoko Tawada
‘You didn’t know where you wanted to end up, had never considered how much time you had left.’
Jesus Who?
Alison Smith
‘Jesus came walking across the lawn, a grin on his face. I waved. “Hi, Jesus.”’
Why I Love Country Music
Elizabeth Tallent
‘The harmonica player is left standing alone in the light, talking to himself. He cleans the spit from his instrument with a white handkerchief so old it is nearly transparent.’
Martha, Martha
Zadie Smith
‘Outside a plane roared low like some prehistoric bird, Pam shuddered; Martha did not move.’
A Conversation Piece
George Steiner
‘No. Listen to me. God's confidence in Abraham was not total. Let me hammer out my meaning.’
Ramadan
Mona Simpson
‘He took my left hand and banded a cleft rose petal over my third finger. I knew before looking in the book. ‘Marrying,’ he said. He’s so young, I was thinking.’
The Five Of Us
Lisa St Aubin de Terán
‘The freezing of the money signalled the beginning of virtual penury. It also signalled the beginning of our fame.’
Marching Songs
Keith Ridgway
‘I believe, though I cannot prove, that my illness is due directly to the perverted Catholicism and megalomania of Mr Tony Blair, former Prime Minister, whom I met once.’
A Battle
Patrick Süskind
‘Early one August evening, when most people had already left the park, two men sat confronting one another across a chessboard.’
