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That Time of Year
Marie NDiaye
‘The fact was that outside of summertime they knew nothing about the place at all.’
Translated from the French by Jordan Stump.
People From My Neighbourhood
Hiromi Kawakami
‘First prize went to the dog school principal, who of course had submitted a cartoon dog.’ Translated from the Japanese by Ted Goossen.
The Perfect Companion
Joanna Kavenna
‘She was so understanding, so interesting, such an intellectual. She was also a wristwatch, but this hardly mattered.’
Golden Vulture
Jason Ockert
‘Last summer, the boy still believed in miracles. That’s why he disobeyed his father and crossed the bridge. He wondered, back then, if his mother might be over there.’
The Fearful Summer
Adam Nicolson
‘I saw the bodies. They were blotched under the skin where the blood had clotted & pooled. I have never seen the dead so dead.’
Clementine, Carmelita, Dog
David Means
‘Here I should stress that dog memory is not at all like human memory, and that human memory, from a dog’s point of view, would seem strange, clunky, unnatural and deceptive.’
The Skylight
Penelope Mortimer
‘Her body poured away inside the too-tight cotton suit and only her bloodshot feet, almost purple in the torturing sandals, had any kind of substance.’
Bonsai
Guadalupe Nettel
‘Bonsai have always prompted a kind of fear in me, or at least a puzzling discomfort.’
The Art of Waving
Andrea E. Macleod
‘I was only nine when I took to practicing the art of not waving. I felt an exhilarating power surge inside me and I ran all the way home, punching the air as I went.’
Death in Her Hands
Ottessa Moshfegh
‘Isn’t it sweet to look back at how my mind jumped to the most innocuous conclusion? That after so many years, at seventy-two, my imagination was still so naive?’
Pew
Catherine Lacey
‘The church has no thoughts. The church is brick and glass. If they ever slept there, they would see that.’
Wherever Mister Jensen Went
Reyah Martin
Reyah Martin’s ‘Wherever Mister Jensen Went’ is the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize regional winner from Canada and Europe.
