Jon McGregor on reworking his first published story from the female perspective, his enduring fascination with Lincolnshire and his new short story collection, This Isn’t The Sort Of Thing That Happens To Someone Like You.
Photograph © Dan Sinclair
‘Men believed without a doubt that rape was just a variety of sex. That was the world in which Narumi and her classmates lived.’
Mieko Kawakami, translated by Louise Heal Kawai & Hitomi Yoshio.
‘First prize went to the dog school principal, who of course had submitted a cartoon dog.’
Three stories by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Ted Goossen.
‘Even if the children don’t understand, they know. Everything they managed to forget during the day comes back.’
Masatsugu Ono, translated by David Boyd.
‘Sounds like rain If I go to the window,
it could easily turn into bullets or rabbits.
Which one is right?
Should I go with my eyes or my ears?’
Toshiko Hirata, translated by Eric Hyett and Spencer Thurlow.
‘Hey, Nagaoka, wanna start a new cult with me?’
Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori.
‘In winter there’s no danger of falling into the sky / Our bodies anchored to the ground by the weight of the light.’
‘He must have taken thousands of services in that time, but this still feels like the holiest thing he’s ever done.‘
‘I’m on the ground, and he is standing over me. Everything is muffled. I’m aware of the sound of running water somewhere.’
'A Q&A session exploring the writing process with novelist Eden Robinson, her muse Marvin and myself, Fictional Eden Robinson'
