There are constants in the media landscape, the images that, even half-seen, alert us to another excitingly dire occurrence.
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Gordon Burn was born in Newcastle in 1948. He is the author of the novels Alma Cogan (winner of the 1992 Whitbread First Novel Prize), Fullalove and The North of England Home Service. He is also the author of the works of non-fiction, Somebody’s Husband, Somebody’s Son (winner of a US Edgar Allan Poe award), Pocket Money and Happy Like Murderers. He wrote the text for Damien Hirst’s book, I want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone, one to one, always, forever, now (1997), before their collaboration On the Way to Work (2001). In 1991 he was named Columnist of the Year in the Magazine Publishing Awards for his sports column in Esquire. He died on July 17, 2009.
More about the author →Tom Pilston is a photographer who collaborated with Gordon Burn on their piece 'The Trial', which appeared in Granta 53.
More about the author →‘The line between reality and its representation has become rivetingly porous.’
‘I tried to work out how many elements I would have plugged if I retired at sixty, and soon I was fatigued before a simple subtraction.’
Fiction by A. Jiang.
‘An enormous black form rose from the water. Uncle Feng told me in a low voice to run fast.’
Fiction by Can Xue, translated by Annelise Finegan.
‘At a time when China has become a unifying specter of menace for Western governments, this issue of Granta brings the country’s literary culture into focus.’
The editor introduces the issue.
‘Fiction is a kind of spell, I said, and analysing a story is an exorcism. It loses all its mystery.’
Fiction by Zhang Yueran, translated by Jeremy Tiang.
‘What does it take to remind people that you are human?’
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