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Pathologies

Kathleen Jamie

‘It felt surprisingly good to be part of that rough tribe of the mortal.’

Helen Gordon | What I’m Reading

Helen Gordon

Helen Gordon on three books she’s reading.

An Open Letter to Mbeki

Petina Gappah

‘You are human, Mr Mbeki, and are therefore prey to the resentments and obstinacies that plague the mere mortal.’

Musa Qala, Afghanistan | Dispatches

James Holland

‘As I discovered, many Afghans still believe that the Taliban offers security.’

On Buying a Clavichord

James Fenton

‘Your clavichord breathes as sweetly as your heart.’

Highlights

Alan Hollinghurst

‘Surely we’re not going to Rome for discos.’

End of the Pier Show

Michael Hofmann

‘They were fascinated / by what they seemed to have contained.’

Greenland

Isabel Hilton

‘Human settlement never seemed so fragile.’

The Joy of Difficulty

Lavinia Greenlaw

‘did you breathe differently / as if equipped with an aqualung’

May We Be Forgiven

A.M. Homes

‘Now I understand the meaning of — it just happened. Or — it was an accident.’

Broken Star

Jennifer Haigh

‘I’d never heard her say an unkind word about anybody.’

The Virgin of Esmeraldas

Nell Freudenberger

‘Everything was okay until Marisol accidentally broke a china cup with a rose on it that her stepmother had brought with her from DR.’

The Earth from the Air

Kitty Hauser

‘It takes another kind of eye, another viewpoint to reveal to us the truth about the world.’