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Granta 107

Summer 2009

Granta 107 features work by Kenzaburō Ōe, Mary Gaitksill, Mahmoud Darwish, Rupert Thomson, William T. Vollmann, Javier Marias, Lionel Shriver and many more.

£14.99

From this Issue

Essays & Memoir|Granta 107
Essays & Memoir|Granta 107

Lost Cat

Mary Gaitskill

‘Which deaths are tragic and which are not? Who decides what is big and what is little?’

Poetry|Granta 107padlock
Poetry|Granta 107padlock

Trick

Sam Willetts

‘The unexceptional mystery takes place: / around eleven, love turns to matter’

Fiction|Granta 107padlock
Fiction|Granta 107padlock

The Encirclement

Tamas Dobozy

‘Teleki would gasp and sputter and grow red in the face and the audience would love it.’ Tamas Dobozy in Granta 107

Essays & Memoir|Granta 107
Essays & Memoir|Granta 107

Capital Gains

Rana Dasgupta

‘The society that has emerged in post-liberalization India is one consumed both by euphoria and dread.’

Fiction|Granta 107padlock
Fiction|Granta 107padlock

From the Journals of Mahmoud Darwish 1941–2008

Mahmoud Darwish

‘I’m alive even though I feel no pain.’

Fiction|Granta 107padlock
Fiction|Granta 107padlock

Reality, Reality

Jackie Kay

‘Now that – that is bursting with flavour.’

Fiction|Granta 107
Fiction|Granta 107

The Rule of Tagame

Kenzaburō Ōe

‘Kogito was lying on the narrow army cot in his study, his ears enveloped in giant headphones, listening intently.’

|Granta 107padlock
|Granta 107padlock

Call Me By My Proper Name

Rupert Thomson

‘My mother’s brother was christened Cedric, but people always called him Joe.’

Essays & Memoir|Granta 107
Essays & Memoir|Granta 107

Airships

Javier Marías

‘We live in an age that tends to depersonalize even people and is, in principle, averse to anthropomorphism.’

Essays & Memoir|Granta 107
Essays & Memoir|Granta 107

The Mind-Child: Remembering J.G. Ballard

Will Self

‘I had been struggling – as every wannabe writer should – with what it was that I could conceivably write.’

Will Self on the influence of J.G. Ballard.

Essays & Memoir|Granta 107padlock
Essays & Memoir|Granta 107padlock

A Sign of Weakness

Terrence Holt

‘Fast asleep, even comatose, a living body moves.’

Essays & Memoir|Granta 107padlock
Essays & Memoir|Granta 107padlock

Body Snatchers

William T. Vollmann

‘The All-American Canal was now dark black with phosphorescent streaks where the border’s eyes stained it with yellow tears.’

The Online Edition

Essays & Memoir|The Online Edition
Essays & Memoir|The Online Edition

After Lockerbie

George Rosie

‘I’ve seen many images from the Lockerbie calamity since but none has stayed with me like the picture of Shannon’s pretty, smiling face.’

In Conversation|The Online Edition
In Conversation|The Online Edition

The Sweetmaker of Kabul

Oliver Englehart

‘The Mandayee bazaar in Kabul’s old city is no tourist souk. Stop to gawp at some oddity of life here and you might be trampled under the mucky wheels of an overladen handcart.’

Essays & Memoir|The Online Edition
Essays & Memoir|The Online Edition

Only Connect

Anita Sethi

‘The performativity of the experience is in some respects akin to watching real-life television; an unfolding soap opera in which the players are not fictional.’

In Conversation|The Online Edition
In Conversation|The Online Edition

Louis de Bernières | Interview

Anita Sethi

‘At four o’clock in the morning, when Louis de Bernières has lines of poetry repeating in his head which won’t stop gnawing away, he writes them down.‘

Essays & Memoir|The Online Edition
Essays & Memoir|The Online Edition

One Ridge Over

Josh Weil

‘Some mornings I see him coming up through the mist. The grey shape of a long-haired man carrying a long-barreled gun amid the bare grey branches of the old apple trees.’

Essays & Memoir|The Online Edition
Essays & Memoir|The Online Edition

Where I’m Calling From

Ariel Leve

‘Pretentiousness was non-existent. Morals were unambiguous and pure.’

Fiction|The Online Edition
Fiction|The Online Edition

Beginning, End | New Voices

Jessica Soffer

‘I walked behind you. You led the rallies. I lost my mother. You rubbed my back.’

In Conversation|The Online Edition
In Conversation|The Online Edition

After the Affair

Maud Newton & Alexander Chee

‘Reading it, I thought, this must be what it was like to be his lover. To wait and wait for him to eventually say something to you, while he talked about everything else.’

In Conversation|The Online Edition
In Conversation|The Online Edition

Ha Jin | Interview

Ha Jin & Helen Gordon

‘My reason for writing in English is twofold: to separate my existence from the state power of China and to preserve the integrity of my work.’

Essays & Memoir|The Online Edition
Essays & Memoir|The Online Edition

A question of identity

Dubravka Ugrešić

‘One of the first things a child learns is the sentiment: My country is… And so begins the homeland briefing that lasts from the cradle to the grave.’

Essays & Memoir|The Online Edition
Essays & Memoir|The Online Edition

Tales From Literary Festivals

Anita Sethi

‘The imagination can also be a passport to places beyond the realms of our own experience, a lesson learned at festivals which have at their core the concept of storytelling.’

In Conversation|The Online Edition
In Conversation|The Online Edition

Jhumpa Lahiri and Mavis Gallant

Jhumpa Lahiri, Mavis Gallant & Rosalind Porter

‘Gallant is considered one of the greatest short-story writers of all time’.

In Conversation|The Online Edition
In Conversation|The Online Edition

John Freeman | Interview

John Freeman & Roy Robins

‘I think you know right away if a piece of writing is good. Does it move me? Does it have intensity? Is it beautiful?’

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