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The Swallow’s Nest
John Boyne
Meet Gore Vidal in this excerpt from John Boyne’s novel A Ladder to the Sky.
The Woman Dies
Aoko Matsuda
‘The woman dies. She dies to provide a plot twist. She dies to develop the narrative. She dies for cathartic effect. She dies because no one could think of what else to do with her.’ Aoko Matsuda, translated from the Japanese by Polly Barton.
The Unspoken
David Hayden
Horror from David Hayden. ‘A shuddering, wordless voice rose in the distance, and another, and another; a chorus, a lament, which ended in a low grunt. There was a coda of sobbing. There was silence.’
Common Whipping
Naben Ruthnum
A young film composer turns to prostitution in a short story by Naben Ruthnum, set in a Rome of the early 1970s.
‘I Am Going to Speak to You about Anxiety’
Hernán Díaz
‘Her mother was still sitting on the sofa, stroking the left armrest while she talked.’
Regan
Brian Booker
A coming-of-age story about an awkward roommate on Roosevelt Island, ordering bisexual porn tapes from catalogues and writing summaries of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet for a living.
Slip of a Fish
Amy Arnold
‘Charlie’s swimming. Six strokes then she turns to breathe, six more and all the way to the end of the length. She’s a swimmer, Charlie. She’s a bit of a fish, a slip of a fish.’
Candidate
Jessie Greengrass
‘All through winter and another summer we wait, but time passes more quickly now that we have a purpose. I feel it flowing.’
