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[3. Ekphrastic]

Nam Le

‘Tinge of colour decay.’

Poetry by Nam Le.

Lifetimes of the Soviet Union

Yuri Slezkine

‘Bolshevism, like most millenarian movements, proved a one-generation phenomenon.’

Yuri Slezkine on Soviet history and the generational arc of revolution.

The Attaché’s Wife

Karan Mahajan

“I’m from here. I grew up here. In fact, that’s why the government invited me back for this work.”

Short fiction by Karan Mahajan.

Isabel

Lillian Fishman

‘Diana saw that Lucy’s appeal was in the nostalgia of her looks: Hers was a teen beauty, at home nowhere more than in a miniskirt.’

Fiction by Lillian Fishman.

The Full Package

Zoe Dubno

‘I wasn’t against fashion; I wasn’t one of those people who need to make it into a whole statement about their intellect.’

Fiction by Zoe Dubno.

Shooting Stars in Your Black Hair

Joanna Biggs & Jack Latham

‘To be in a hair salon is to be bubble-wrapped against the world – or at least that’s the fantasy.’

Joanna Biggs on salons, intimacy and the photography of Jack Latham.

Ricks & Hern

Nico Walker

‘Naturally, no partnership is perfect. Certain pieces will be at odds – you’ll have that.’

Fiction by Nico Walker.

Niamey Nights

Rahmane Idrissa

‘The first time I heard of generations, they were likened to the loops of a ribbon.’

Rahmane Idrissa on photography and music in the Sahel.

The Life, Old Age and Death of a Woman of the People

Didier Eribon

‘How little one knows, really, about one’s parents.’

Memoir by Didier Eribon translated by Michael Lucey.

David Attenborough

K Patrick

‘Motherhood is this chapter, / we all love a mother, / disastrous as it is.’

Poetry by K Patrick.

The Trouble with Old Men

Samuel Moyn

‘The choicest parts of the world’s richest cities, according to demographers, are dense with aged residents.’

Samuel Moyn on gerontocracy.

Calais to Dover

Jana Prikryl

‘If you need a renewable resource / then look in the direction of the sea. / It’s deep as feelings you didn’t know you had.’

Poetry by Jana Prikryl.

Five O’Clock Somewhere

Gary Indiana

‘It’s when things fail to return to normal, that finally you get it: this is normal.’

Gary Indiana on growing older.

And That’s How I Became a Woman

Vigdis Hjorth

‘Finn Lykke opened the door wearing jeans and a freshly-ironed, white shirt, he had made an effort.’

Fiction by Vigdis Hjorth, translated by Charlotte Barslund.