My head was hanging over the hair-washing basin, like a weighty pistil. With her soft, sensually slow circular movements Zlatka made her way through the wet mass all the way to the roots. Pleasure spread down my neck; I closed my eyes. Naturally, the tips of her fingers were seductively certain of t…
Zlatka
Maja Hrgović
Animalia

Whale Fall
Rebecca Giggs watches the slow death of a beached humpback whale.

Tadpoles
As a child, Primo Levi discovered the surprising brutality to raising tadpoles.

Witness: Butterflies on a Wheel
Anthony Doerr on the most marvellous thing he's ever seen: the migration of butterflies in Wyoming.

Lost Cat
The loss of a cat leads to recollections of other losses in this memoir by Mary Gaitskill.

Destroyed
Hilary Mantel grew up with a dog she called Victor and a brother she called pig.