‘Eating figs is different for girls.’ She says this because she is being sexy for him to pass their time: standing in a queue and over-gently, over-carefully setting her lips to the fig, destroying it in an affectionate way. The round blush and kiss of the skin, the neat, small burden in her han…
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‘I think there should be a National Service of Hospitality. The best way to see the true face of humanity is to serve it a plate of chips.’
Camilla Grudova on bad-mannered customers.
‘Anyone who has ever worked night shifts will understand the vertiginous feeling that comes with staring down the day from the wrong end.’
A.K. Blakemore on working nights.
‘I was constantly reading job ads, trying to find my holy grail – a job I could stand to do, and someone foolish enough to hire me.’
Sandra Newman on learning how to play professional blackjack.
‘I loved being a receptionist. What I loved about it was playing the part of being a receptionist.’
Emily Berry on being a temporary office worker.
‘Every part of you would swell, including your eyeballs, and no matter how much water you drank, you were always dehydrated.’
Junot Díaz on working for a steel mill.
A.L. Kennedy on being chosen for, and judging Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists.
‘I have never seen anyone eat figs in the street and feel I am unsurprised.’
Tatiana Salem Levy is introduced by previous double Best of Young British Novelist, A.L. Kennedy.
‘I realize it is my fault: whenever I live in any country, everything turns wrong. I see it as a gift.’
‘Here were humanity’s wilder beauties and our horrors, the physical record of hatreds, lusts and quiet obsessions.’ A.L. Kennedy introduces Brad Feuerhelm’s photographic collection.
‘Everybody’s face looks different at night, especially outside. You see their real faces.’
A new story by Sam Munson.
