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Explore Essays and memoir

Chinua Achebe’s Legacy

Ike Anya

‘Who will speak out for us now? Who will ask the hard questions of us and the world that he did?’

Pondlife: A Swimmer’s Journal

Al Alvarez

‘The water was chilly and sweet – cold enough to stay with me and make me shiver while I did some shopping later.’

In the Shadow of John Ascuaga’s Nugget

Claire Vaye Watkins

‘It would be falsely modest to claim that I appreciate the hot dog on any level beneath that of connoisseur.’

Betrayal

Adam Foulds

‘The thrill of this film – and it is thrilling – is seeing that understood and played out by actors of incredible skill.’

From the Past Comes the Storms

Andrés Felipe Solano

‘During the hottest months, the thermometer settles in at 100 degrees like a nonagenarian in a rocker – no one can make it move.’

Seven Days in Syria

Janine di Giovanni

‘I had come to Syria because I wanted to see a country before it tumbled down the rabbit hole of war’

Flowers Appear on the Earth

Samantha Harvey

‘In their deepest sorrow the islanders buried the ashes of their forty-six dead.’

Fiction by Samantha Harvey.

Kopfkino

Chloe Aridjis

‘Yet the little white disks with a dent down the middle are no panacea; whenever I take one of these thought guillotines I feel trapped in a grey zone’.

God is Brazilian

André Barcinski

‘Guys like V seem to be everywhere in Brazil these days: riding in vehicles they can’t afford, buying the latest generation TV sets and smart phones, getting hooked on endless installment plans and the allure of easy credit.’

Pola Oloixarac on Julián Fuks

Julián Fuks & Pola Oloixarac

‘It is a rare pleasure to read Saer’s influence through the Brazilian music of Julián Fuks’ language, with his keen and almost obsessive eye for detail.’

Rodrigo Hasbún on Antônio Xerxenesky

Antônio Xerxenesky & Rodrigo Hasbún

‘Seven pages are also enough, the seven that make up this story, to discover Xerxenesky’s extraordinary talent.’

Samba e Choro

Javier Montes

‘I think the cities we remember best are the ones that greet us with the utmost cruelty.’