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← Back to all issuesGranta 39: The Body
Spring 1992
Is it us or is it nothing more than the container of what we really are? With: Abraham Verghese, Jeanette Winterson, Michael Dibdin, Geoffrey Biddle, Todd McEwen, Hanif Kureishi, Giorgio Pressburger, Anchee Min, Antonin Kratochvil, John Conroy, Peregrine Hodson, and Victoria Tokareva. Plus: fiction by Salman Rushdie and Redmond O’Hanlon in the Congo.
From this Issue
Fiction|Granta 39
Fiction|Granta 39
The Congo Dinosaur
Redmond O’Hanlon
‘The boy lay stretched out on a low wooden platform under an orange tree.’
Essays & Memoir|Granta 39
Essays & Memoir|Granta 39
Soundings
Abraham Verghese
‘On the first day of June, 1972, I was taught how to percuss the body.’
Fiction|Granta 39
Fiction|Granta 39
The Pathology Lesson
Michael Dibdin
‘The autopsy is complete. I thank the pathologist, who thanks me for coming. We both thank the assistant, who in turn thanks us. It is all very polite, very English. You almost expect the cadavers to add their thanks as well.’
Art & Photography|Granta 39
Art & Photography|Granta 39
Spring Break at Daytona Beach
Mary Ellen Mark
Mary Ellen Mark’s photographs of spring break at Daytona Beach in Granta 39: The Body.
Fiction|Granta 39
Fiction|Granta 39
The Cells, Tissues, Systems and Cavities of the Body
Jeanette Winterson
‘You were a coat of many colours wrestled into the dirt.’
Art & Photography|Granta 39
Art & Photography|Granta 39
My Daughter
Geoffrey Biddle
Geoffrey Biddle’s photographs of his family in Granta 39: The Body.
Essays & Memoir|Granta 39
Essays & Memoir|Granta 39
My Mother’s Eyes
Todd McEwen
‘My mother has a small brown book, the kind of notebook made of alligators and sold to wealthy people who do not make notes.’
Essays & Memoir|Granta 39
Essays & Memoir|Granta 39
Teeth
Giorgio Pressburger
‘One day in January a tall thin man with long white hair came into our courtyard. He was draped in a green cloak, torn in various places.’
Essays & Memoir|Granta 39
Essays & Memoir|Granta 39
Wild Women, Wild Men
Hanif Kureishi
‘When I saw them waiting beside their car, I said, ‘You must be freezing.’ It was cold and foggy, the first night of winter, and the two women had matching short skirts and skimpy tops; their legs were bare.’
Art & Photography|Granta 39
Art & Photography|Granta 39
Sideshow
Antonin Kratochvil
Antonin Kratochvil’s photographs of sideshow performers for Granta 39: The Body.
Essays & Memoir|Granta 39
Essays & Memoir|Granta 39
Red Fire Farm
Anchee Min
‘I arrived at Red Fire Farm – along with many other girls in ten large trucks – late one spring afternoon in 1974.’
Essays & Memoir|Granta 39
Essays & Memoir|Granta 39
The Internment
John Conroy
‘In a low-rent corner of Belfast's city centre is a district known as Smithfield, and on its main street there is a market, an anarchist bookshop, a public toilet and a bookmaker's called Stanley’s.’
Essays & Memoir|Granta 39
Essays & Memoir|Granta 39
The Dolphin of Amble
Peregrine Hodson
‘Once again the dolphin presented his body to my hand, slid by my fingers and turned over with a lazy splash.’
Fiction|Granta 39
Fiction|Granta 39
Fiction|Granta 39
At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers
Salman Rushdie
‘The bidders who have assembled for the auction of the magic slippers bear little resemblance to your usual saleroom.’