‘Now Bangladesh survives only on aid, on other people feeding its people.’
Bakher Khan bought a shell keyring on Cox’s Bazaar beach from one of those bare-chested girls who sell trinkets in the dark. He had had the name ‘Mohua’ carved on the shell. He showed it to Mr Vincent when Mr Vincent climbed in the Jeep the next morning.
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‘We meet at various points in the great swathes of the past that neither of us were alive to witness.’
Allen Bratton on a daytrip to a castle with his older boyfriend.
‘Listening to three white poets, whom I suspect are academics, talk about the state of poetry.’
Oluwaseun Olayiwola eavesdrops on an older generation.
‘I’d been dubious about his company at first.’
Sarah Moss on watching Shakespeare with her twelve-year-old son.
‘She didn’t trust us because, to her, tenants were like children.’
Kate Zambreno on negotiating with her older landlady.
‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’
Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.
‘The disappointment only spread later, like an odorless gas seeping through the pipes, and the only complaints heard were from old people wandering around anxiously in the fog.’
Translated from the Italian by Elizabeth Harris.
Ariel Saramandi on the sinking of the MV Wakashio off the coast of Mauritius.
‘We Indigenous peoples know how nature works, how water, mountains, trees function and relate to each other, how stars in space are connected with the earth.’
‘Never, long as I live, will I forget the few days I had spent with the Millers.’ Buddhadeva Bose on his friendship with Henry Miller.
‘The problem was that, for the most part, it did not matter how widely broadcast your discontent was: no one cared.’
Rana Dasgupta on digital celebrity and a suicide in the banlieues of Paris.
‘Our ears were soon as sensitive as a skinless arm, and we spoke in whispers, registered the furtive drip of remote taps.’
