Issues
← Back to all issuesGranta 85: Hidden Histories
Spring 2004
This issue of Granta excavates histories both personal and political: repressed memories, unexplored lives, forgotten wars, secret careers.
From this Issue
|Granta 85
A Religious Conversation
Orhan Pamuk
‘"Hello, sir. Do you recognize me?" "No, I'm afraid I don't."’
|Granta 85
Eight Pieces for the Left Hand
J. Robert Lennon
‘Autumn, once the most popular season in this town of tall trees, is now regarded with dread, thanks to the bitter athletic rivalry between our two local high schools.’
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The Lives of Brian
Brian Cathcart
’ My name is Brian Cathcart. I grew up mainly in Northern Ireland. My father was headmaster of a secondary school and my mother taught English. I come from Protestant stock, though I have no religion myself. I studied history at university. I remember the Troubles starting, the war in Biafra, the Beatles.’
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You Go When You Can No Longer Stay
Jackie Kay
‘It is not so much that we are splitting up that is really worrying me, it is the fact that she keeps quoting Martin Amis.’
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The Surgery of Last Resort
Daniel Smith
’Early one morning in the fall of 1999, Steven R., a forty-seven-year-old man with fair skin and grey hair, was in the front yard of his home in suburban Nebraska, picking up leaves‘.
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Good Father
David J. Spear
‘My father was up early. Everything was in place: his books in their bag; each prayer and reading marked; his shoes shined, his shirt and collar, his cassock and cope pressed.’
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White Men’s Boats
Giles Foden
‘Deo Gratias stood on the deck of the Liemba with his prisoners at his feet. I leaned on the rail, studiously casual.’
|Granta 85
Femme Fatale
T. Coraghessan Boyle
‘Looking back on it now, I don't think I was ever actually 'sex shy' (to use one of Prok's pet phrases), but I'll admit I was pretty naive when I first came to him, not to mention hopelessly dull and conventional.’
|Granta 85
Put Not Thy Trust In Chariots
Jonathan Tel
'David had nothing against Arabs personally.This despite the fact he was religious (he wore a blue-and-white kippa which had been knitted by his wife, Devorah, as an engagement present.'
|Granta 85
Protestant Boy
Geoffrey Beattie
‘I was going home to Belfast to visit my mother. It was the spring of 1998 and the weather was very good for that time of year.’
