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I’ve Seen the Future, Baby; It Is Murder

Tara Isabella Burton

‘It was not very comfortable, but the appeal of it was that we did not like each other.’

Wild Failure

Zoe Whittall

‘They’re driving their failing relationship into the desert.’

That

Leni Zumas

‘Members of the committee, I am bitter, it’s true. But this doesn’t change the facts.’

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.’

Occupation

Julián Fuks

‘They tell me you write about exile, about lives adrift, about trees whose roots are buried thousands of kilometres away, he said in his harsh accent, his hoarseness aggravated by the static on the telephone line.’

Passage

Kevin Jared Hosein

Kevin Jared Hosein’s ‘Passage’ is the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner from the Caribbean. 

Jennifer

Amitava Kumar

‘I was overcome by a feeling that took root then and has never left me, the feeling that in this land that was someone else’s country, I did not have a place to stand.’

Perfidious Albion

Sam Byers

‘In terms of aspiration, leaving London was the new moving to London. You slogged it out, made a name for yourself, then decamped to the sticks and devoted yourself to trashing city life on Twitter while roaming the fields in pursuit of your tweedy ideals.’

Ghillie’s Mum

Lynda Clark

‘Social services gave Mum a whole list of conditions she had to adhere to. She wasn’t allowed to be animals anymore, under any circumstances, or they would take Ghillie away from her.’

The Swimmer

Tom Lee

‘I wondered what an onlooker might make of this man, this scene.’

True Happiness

Efua Traoré

‘Papa suddenly appears inside the door and sits down after three months of no-show-face and my happiness just vamoose.’

Shirley from a Small Place

Alexia Arthurs

‘The highs and lows of fame, have been far better and far worse than both mother and daughter could have hoped for. Shirley is only twenty-seven.’

The Divine Pregnancy in a Twelve-Year-Old Woman

Sagnik Datta

Sagnik Datta’s ‘The Divine Pregnancy in a Twelve-Year-Old Woman’ is the Asian regional winner of the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. 

The World Is a Narrow Bridge

Aaron Thier

‘They’re back on I-95, northbound this time, the city disappearing behind them, the sun setting like a piece of pink candy over the Everglades.’