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DIARY
Karen Joy Fowler: Hanging by the bay

“I am feeling all charitable toward the particular humans I meet today, who, whatever their complicities, are picking someone else’s trash up as they walk along, or adding their own art to the already beautiful vista.”

 

Gideon_Lewis-Kraus_thumbnailINTERVIEW
On the trail of Gideon Lewis-Kraus

“Our motives are always mixed. Everything is over-determined, and sometimes the only way one can get away with fulfilling a desire is by describing it as an obligation.”

 

Our_Happy_Time_thumbnailEXTRACT
Gong Ji-young: Not old enough to die

If only people were like trees and could fall into a long death-like sleep once a year and reawaken. It would be nice to wake up, put out new pale green leaves and pink blossoms, and start over.”

 

Stefan_ZweigCONTEXT
Wes Anderson & George Prochnik on Stefan Zweig

“There are the same kinds of people and dynamics we know from our world. But also details of a universe most of us have no experience of, and that’s great to discover.”

 

The_Road_to_Middlemarch_thumbnailINTERVIEW
Rebecca Mead’s book for life

Middlemarch gives my parents back to me. In the pages of my imagination they are still together, watching me and watching over me from the window of their lives.”

 

Terms_and_Conditions_thumbnailDIARY
Robert Glancy: My own private love club

Packed my bags for my UK book tour. Bit nervous. Not worn shoes for months and have only spoken to sparrows. Not sure how well this is going to go…”

 

Fables_thumbnailPOETRY
Jean de La Fontaine: Animal scruples

“No grills or cooking-pots for them, say you? – shepherds, reflect: the wolf is only wrong
when he is weak and you are strong. Why should he live as hermits do?”

 

Machado_de_Assis_thumbnailSHORT STORY
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis: Ex cathedra

“There was a sound out by the porch – a thunderous roar of kisses, according to the caterpillars out by the barn. But, then again, any little noise sounds like thunder to a caterpillar.”

 

Plus…

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More fantastical fiction via Brazil and Scotland from Marcilio França Castro and Kirsty Logan, the enduring influence of Shirley Jackson on Karin Salvalaggio, Prajwal Parajuly’s problems with gods, Anna Whitwham champions London’s East End, Jamal Mahjoub’s double life as Parker Bilal, at the writing desk of Susan Minot, Peter Fröberg Idling’s obsession with an infatuated Pol Pot, Clare Morrall’s top ten books to make you laugh and cry, Sora Kim-Russell on her delicate translation of Gong Ji-young, Stefan Zweig’s Vienna before the Great War, a delightful retelling of Gilgamesh by Yiyun Li, and a chance to win fabulous Grand Budapest Hotel and Stefan Zweig goodies in our prize draw.