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Night

Alice Munro

‘I read books as usual, nobody knew there was a thing the matter with me.’

Fiction by Alice Munro.

My Heart

Semezdin Mehmedinović

‘Today, it seems, was the day I was meant to die.’ Translated from the Bosnian by Celia Hawkesworth.

The Former Mayor’s Ancient Daughter

Rachel Shihor

‘With us in the nursing home lives the ancient daughter of the former mayor’

The Third Dumpster

Gish Jen

‘It was about doing what sons were bound to do, which was not to pussyfoot around.’

Philanthropy

Suzanne Rivecca

‘They were all perpetually cowed by their own brutality, quivering and defeated by the measures they were forced to enact.’

Marching Songs

Keith Ridgway

‘I believe, though I cannot prove, that my illness is due directly to the perverted Catholicism and megalomania of Mr Tony Blair, former Prime Minister, whom I met once.’

Servitude

Tessa Hadley

‘We had each needed the other for something, which wasn’t kindness or love. We’d both had dry husks for our hearts, that day.’

Jubilee

Carys Davies

‘His name was Arthur Pritt, he said, and he was sorry for the day.’

Two Girls in a Boat

Emma Martin

‘This was a tiredness that caused Hannah to walk into a travel agent in Clapham High Street on a grey Tuesday morning and buy a ticket to New Zealand.’

The Dolphin Catcher

Diana McCaulay

‘Lloyd heard his grandfather’s voice in his mind: I come from a line of fishermen.’

The Ghost Marriage

Andrea Mullaney

‘I did not meet my husband until six years after he died.’

Morrison Okoli (1955-2010)

Jekwu Anyaegbuna

‘It is always an honour to have women cry during someone’s burial, but yours is too silent for comfort.’

Radio Story

Anushka Jasraj

‘We have been married five years – too soon for us to take pleasure in each other’s absence.’

The Deadman’s Pedal

Alan Warner

‘Each man’s right hand was stained black with glossy wet muck.’