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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 Day in the Life in El Salvador
Manlio Argueta
‘I have not failed you, José. I understand that you were saying goodbye when you opened your eye, and that, besides greeting me, you were expressing your pride in me, seeing me standing with my arm around the shoulders of your granddaughter.’
A Discourse on the Elephant
Richard Rayner
‘This is not the story of my life, at least not the story of all of it, but it is the story of my father.’
A Double-Income Family
Deepti Kapoor
When Mrs Mehra leaves Delhi she retires in one of ‘the vast new satellite townships on the eastern fringes of the metropolis’.
A Dying Tongue
Sarah Bernstein
‘What needs explaining was that, and it was a funny thing, a very funny thing, I did not speak the language.’
An extract from Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein.
A Fan Letter
Stewart O’Nan
‘Before I begin I'd like to say that I'll try to remember everything as best I can, though sometimes I know it won't be right.’
A Few Words on the Life Cycle of Frogs
Patricio Pron
‘I wasn’t going to abandon the dream of literature, I was going to keep dreaming.’
A Ghost in Brazil
Kikuko Tsumura
‘I was ever so keen to visit the Aran Islands, but unfortunately, I died before ever making it out of Japan.’
A Hat for Lemer
Cecil Browne
Winner of the 2022 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize for Canada and Europe.
A Hebrew Sibyl
Cynthia Ozick
‘And so began what I was to become. To all these things – the admonitions and the testimonies, the rites and the annunciations – I had easily acquiesced.’
A House in the Country
Romesh Gunesekera
‘The nights had always been noisy: frogs, drums, bottles, dogs barking at the moon.’
