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A Journey into Afghanistan

Peregrine Hodson

‘We had been travelling for a week, and had reached the territory of the Hesb Nasr: a rival group of mujahedin who were notorious for ambushing travellers, stealing their weapons and skinning their victims.’

A letter from Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro

The letter that accompanied Ishiguro’s first submission to Granta.

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 Life in Clothes

Ruth Gershon

‘The children of ruling families are born in the purple’.

A Mingling | State of Mind

Siri Hustvedt

‘My empathy may become a vehicle of insight for me and therefore help me to help you or it may debilitate me altogether, make me so sad I am no good to you whatsoever.’

A Mystery

Charles Jones

‘Charles Jones took beautiful photographs of vegetables, fruit and flowers.’

A New Front Line

Lindsey Hilsum

Lindsey Hilsum shows how investigative reporting has become just as dangerous as frontline correspondence. ‘Investigative reporters are in more peril than ever and the front line has come to Europe.’

A Plausible Portrait

Ted Hodgkinson

‘My friends say I am secretive and devious,’ he wrote in the introduction to Picasso and Dora. ‘They’re right.’

A Play on David Rakoff

A.M. Homes

‘He was rare and singular.’

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 Sign of Weakness

Terrence Holt

‘Fast asleep, even comatose, a living body moves.’

A Sparrow Fallen

Dave Heath

‘a sparrow fallen; / blackness of pain shimmering / hard in soft white light’

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.’