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Oceans Away From My Homeland

Agnes Chew

‘At the entrance to the gynaecology clinic, I ring the bell.’

Fiction by Agnes Chew.

Lech, Prince and the Nice Things

Rue Baldry

‘I spend the afternoon scarifying ceilings. My neck and shoulders are killing me by the time I leave.’

Fiction by Rue Baldry.

A Certain King

Jennifer Atkins

‘I didn’t think she was happy; I thought she was in love, but I didn’t know what that told me, if it told me anything.’

Fiction by Jennifer Atkins.

The Hair Baby

Sara Baume

‘She has been ten for a month and she does not like it. She carries the weight of her extra digit like a chain-mail vest.’

Fiction by Sara Baume.

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.

Universality

Natasha Brown

‘She boils her sentences down to high-sucrose sweeties and calibrates her tone for maximum engagement.’

Fiction by Natasha Brown.

Doubtful Sound

Eleanor Catton

‘I knew that Dominic had cheated on me. I couldn’t tell you when, or who, or how many times, but I was certain that he had.’

Fiction by Eleanor Catton.

She’s Always Hungry

Eliza Clark

‘I could hear the sea, and I could hear my own name.’

Fiction by Eliza Clark.

The Room-Service Waiter

Tom Crewe

‘There was to be an exhibition. There were lots of pictures like his, apparently – of waiters, pastry cooks, valets, bellboys.’

A story by Tom Crewe.

Strangers at the Port

Lauren Aimee Curtis

‘The other islands in the archipelago had their active volcanoes; now we had the men.’

An extract from Lauren Aimee Curtis’s forthcoming novel.

Acid Permanent

Suzie Bovenzi

‘I miss his body, the blank shine of it. I miss the clean blue bib.’

A story by Suzie Bovenzi.

The Gospel According to the New World

Maryse Condé

‘Our Father had perhaps two sons and sent her the younger one.’

An excerpt from The Gospel According to the New World, by Maryse Condé, translated from the French by Richard Philcox.

Husband Number Five

Emily Adrian

‘I’ve been cruel to my mother all my life. Relentlessly hitting on her new boyfriend was barely remarkable.’

Fiction by Emily Adrian.

Oxblood

Tom Benn

‘Some nights he hurt her which made her glad; she never let him know because the pain was brief and rare and felt like penance.’

An extract from Oxblood by Tom Benn.