‘I thought that this must be the sort of plane that crashes. What were a few more dead, travelling to the city of the dead?’
When my mother called the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong that August of 1967, the receptionist at the front desk simply told her, ‘They not here. They go Saigon with father.’ It’s odd that the fact my sister and I had actually entered a war zone did not register at first with my mother, but I al…
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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.
‘We do not understand why, nor did we covet such long life, but here we are, our respective addictions and madness with us to the end.’
‘Otome games are about women writing romance plots designed to please women – paper hubbies and their voice actors are just a conduit to make the experience more believable.’
Yun Sheng on the rise of virtual love in China.
‘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.
