Granta | The Home of New Writing

Explore Fiction

Final Dispatch: End in Pizza

Juan Pablo Villalobos

‘Those are not prisons, they are condominiums for rich people. Or at least that is what rich people think.’

Sparks

Carol Bensimon

‘Your anywhere is a river you watch as you smoke.’

Brazil: A User’s Guide

Juan Pablo Villalobos

‘The Brazilian banking system was created by a Czech writer called Franz Kafka.’

Second Dispatches from Ambassador to Brazil, Earth

Juan Pablo Villalobos

‘Forget about football: queuing and stamping are Brazil’s national sports.’

Anecdotes

Ann Beattie

‘Christine’s hair had begun to dry, and she looked different, with her hair down and her glasses on. Her earnestness made her look younger, and took me back to the bar where we’d sat in Pennsylvania years ago.’

Dispatches from Ambassador to Brazil, Earth

Juan Pablo Villalobos

‘In Brazil it is crucial not to be Argentinian. Add that to our Earth mission’s proceedings manual under the topic ‘Cultural Affairs’.’

Frogs

Mo Yan

‘Once the preposterous reality set in, we were overcome by sadness.’

Exit Music

Chris Drangle

‘The only sound in the cabin is the droning of the engine.’

The Wig

Han Dong

‘Hu Yanjun had got his hands on a wig, and was trying it on in front of the mirror when his friend Wang Xinghai came to see him.’

Accident

Etgar Keret

’Thirty years I’m a cabbie,’ the small guy sitting behind the wheel tells me, ’thirty years and not one accident.’

Even Pretty Eyes Commit Crimes

M.J. Hyland

‘My father was sitting on my doorstep. He was wearing khaki shorts, his bare head was exposed to the full bore of the sun, and he was holding a pineapple.’

In Transit | New Voices

Dina Nayeri

‘Now it seemed that the rest of life was only a bright, eye-burning white expanse, like the sun-bleached concrete slabs just outside this building.’

Grand Rounds

Chris Adrian

‘I used to fall asleep in those same seats during lectures just like this one.’

The Cutting

Rose Tremain

‘I could not for too long delay my promise to Violet Bathurst to cut out her Cancer.’