‘I’m not a snob, it’s just that down here we take chess seriously.’
The first thing ‘El Tano’ Castiglione did when he landed was to burn the papers. He had arrived on the island at dusk, and by the time the ferryboat had disappeared around the bend of the river, he had clambered down from the jetty and dumped the contents of his backpack on to the muddy riverban…
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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.
‘In a bad position, any move is worthless.’
New fiction by Maxim Osipov, translated from the Russian by Alex Fleming.
‘In the place where I grew up there were horses, thighs moving like nudity under their fur’
‘It would be many years before I understood that around my mother’s sober acceptance of the status quo was a whole culture she had developed for our subsistence and well-being.’
‘You’re gonna want to go down the other side of the mountain and check out the Facility. Don’t do it.’
‘Her heart is kept in a room with a very expensive security system.’
