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A Beheading

Mohsin Hamid

‘The words are just dribbling out of my mouth. I can’t stop them. They’re like tears.’

A Conversation with the Head of Orpheus

Russell Hoban

‘Far, far away in the night are live human beings whose breathing can be heard as they speak, and they're looking at their illuminated dials as I look at mine at this end of the darkness that curves with the night miles to the heave and swell of the ocean dawn.’

A House in the Country

Romesh Gunesekera

‘The nights had always been noisy: frogs, drums, bottles, dogs barking at the moon.’

A Letter From Wales

Cynan Jones

‘Believe me – it will be impossible for you not to wonder – when I vow I am entirely sane.’

A Scale Model of Gull Point

Kate Folk

Trapped in a revolving restaurant during an American revolution, Shel VanRybroek turns to tin-foil sculpture.

A Tale of Two Martyrs

Tahar Ben Jelloun

‘You spend your life swallowing insults.’

A Temporary Stay

Emilio Fraia

‘There doesn’t seem to be any cause and effect.’

A World Intact

Adam Foulds

‘His life, unexciting as it may have been so far, was still a detailed, complicated thing.’

After Half-Time

Shamik Ghosh

Subha Prasad Sanyal’s translation of ‘After Half-Time’ by Shamik Ghosh is the winner of Harvill Secker’s Young Translators’ Prize 2018.

After Hours

A. M. Homes

‘They have created stage sets, backdrops, candy-coloured scenarios, Kodacolor bright landscapes onto which you can project your fantasies.’

After the War

Patrick French

‘My antipathy to military culture started early and it wasn't helped by living in a garrison town.’

American Objects

Lucy Ives

‘My eyes were way too large. They appeared, if this is possible, independently scandalized.’

Apnoea

Daniel Galera

‘I could make you promise much worse things.’ Daniel Galera muses on unknown family histories.

Apples

David Guterson

‘He remembered the new, fresh, orchard country of his youth and the rows of apple trees his father had planted on the east bank of the Columbia River.’