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Me, The Other, and My Mother
Sudan
I am fifty now—the same age my mother was when God took her, thirty years ago to the day. I am not recounting her story to mark a thirtieth anniversary, as people do for the mothers...
Me, The Other, and My Mother
Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin
6 min
The Comet
USA
He stood a moment on the steps of the bank, watching the human river that swirled down Broadway. Few noticed him. Few ever noticed him save in a way that stung. He was outside the world—...
The Comet
W. E. B. Du Bois
20 min
The Taipan
UK
No one knew better than he that he was an important person. He was number one in not the least important branch of the most important English firm in China. He had worked his way up...
The Taipan
William Somerset Maugham
12 min
Lost in the Forest
Germany
In summer, during the season, he works from sunrise to sunset. Drives to work at dawn, comes back at dusk. It’s beautiful; the drive takes exactly as long as the sun rising and setting. They set...
Lost in the Forest
Terézia Mora
20 min
On a Saturday
Germany
‘Porta-Pat!’ comes in stereo from either side. They laugh. ‘Your turn!’ To get the beers in, they mean. They’re already drunk as twin skunks. They really mean it. Porta-Pat. Supposed to be my new nickname, they...
On a Saturday
Finn-Ole Heinrich
14 min
Story About Nothing
Germany
South   I woke myself up by laughing and couldn’t stop for quite a while, even though from the first moment on I couldn’t remember what I was laughing about. Henri said he once woke up...
Story About Nothing
Peter Glaser
17 min
The Fig Leaf
USA
The nodes were like beetles, their black metal bodies shining between the attendant’s fingers. “Just a pinch, dear,” he said, leaning in and fixing the nodes to my temples, measuring symmetry with my eyes and his....
The Fig Leaf
Benjamin Shane Evans
6 min
And Even Higher
USA
I went running and tripped on a crack in the sidewalk. I broke my fall with my hand but also smashed my iPhone, which wasn’t in a protective case because the one I had didn’t fit...
And Even Higher
Todd Pitock
8 min
Bliss
New Zealand
Although Bertha Young was thirty she still had moments like this when she wanted to run instead of walk, to take dancing steps on and off the pavement, to bowl a hoop, to throw something up...
Bliss
Katherine Mansfield
18 min
Wants
USA
I saw my ex-husband in the street. I was sitting on the steps of the new library. Hello, my life, I said. We had once been married for twenty-seven years, so I felt justified. He said,...
Wants
Grace Paley
3 min
Bobok
Russia
Semyon Ardalyonovitch said to me all of a sudden the day before yesterday: “Why, will you ever be sober, Ivan Ivanovitch? Tell me that, pray.” A strange requirement. I did not resent it, I am a...
Bobok
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
25 min
An Attempt at Murder
Czech Republic
That evening Mr. Tomsa, chief clerk in a government office, had just settled down with his earphones and, with a gratified smile, was listening to a pleasant performance of some Dvorak dances on the radio —...
An Attempt at Murder
Karel Čapek
5 min
If the War Continues
Germany
Ever since I was young, I used to disappear from time to time to reinvigorate myself, and I would lose myself in other worlds. People would search for me, and when they could not find me,...
If the War Continues
Hermann Hesse
10 min
Nocturnal Yearnings
UK
3:34 am.  She was awake. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness of the bedroom. She could make out every familiar feature. In recent months, this time had become too familiar to her. She no longer...
Nocturnal Yearnings
Naomi Nightingale
3 min
The Green Door
USA
Suppose you should be walking down Broadway after dinner, with ten minutes allotted to the consummation of your cigar while you are choosing between a diverting tragedy and something serious in the way of vaudeville. Suddenly...
The Green Door
O. Henry
10 min
Are You Enjoying Your Forgiveness?
USA
It was the 15th of the August of 1999, the morning before the wedding of Benjamin Kern and Maitreya Scheffer, ceremony and celebration to be hosted by the bride’s parents at their home in Bethel, Vermont,...
Are You Enjoying Your Forgiveness?
Julia May Jonas
31 min
A Clean Marriage
Japan
My husband emerged from the bedroom, woken by the beeps at the end of the washing-machine cycle. ‘Morning . . . Sorry I overslept. Shall I take over?’ The weekend laundry was his job, but since...
A Clean Marriage
Sayaka Murata
20 min
It was nice not to meet you
Israel
Sometimes strangers come visit, friends of yours, parents themselves. I don’t have any problem with that, let them come, you have every right to invite them. But as long as they do, why do they have...
It was nice not to meet you
Ofir Oz
4 min
The Piano
France
It was in the midst of these gloomy shadows, in the stifling night that every moment seemed to intensify about him, that there began to shine, like a star lost in the dark abysm of space,...
The Piano
Romain Rolland
19 min
Visiting The House of The Rich
France
Louisa, who let no opportunity escape of earning a little money, used to go out as cook for exceptional occasions, such, as marriages or baptismal feasts. Melchior pretended to know nothing about it—it touched his vanity—but...
Visiting The House of The Rich
Romain Rolland
15 min
The Cold
Japan
 One morning, after a fall of snow. Yasukichi sat on a chair in the physics teachers’ lounge, watching the flames in the heating stove. The flames licked up yellow one moment, then fell to sooty ruins...
The Cold
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
7 min
Endgame
Gaza
I opened my eyes to the world in a city with a lifeless childhood. I opened my eyes in the battlefield. Nobody told me who the soldiers were, or what occupation is. I grew up having...
Endgame
Abdalhadi Alijla
4 min
Flies
Israel
It was the last summer before they gave the Sinai back to Egypt. I was thirteen and I drove with my parents and their friends down to Ras Burka. I think that must have been our...
Flies
Eshkol Nevo
10 min
S&M in the Holy Land
Israel
“Did you hear about the girl?” the Candyland cashier, who resembled a human gummy bear, asked me. “You didn’t hear? She was brought to the emergency room early this morning. The orderlies are calling her ‘The...
S&M in the Holy Land
Roy Chen
17 min
The Story of a Sock
Libya
I . . . am a cheap sock, I cost half a dinar. An industrial cooperative manufactured me, and my profit margin was redistributed among the elements of production. An ordinary man bought me, a manual...
The Story of a Sock
Muhammad al-Asfar
3 min
The City
Russia
It was an immense city in which they lived: Petrov, clerk in a commercial bank, and he, the other,—name unknown. They used to meet once a year, at Easter, when they both went to pay a...
The City
Leonid Andreyev
11 min
Little Black Fish
Iran
It was the longest night of winter. At the bottom of the sea, an old fish gathered together 12,000 of her children and grandchildren and began to tell them this story: Once upon a time a...
Little Black Fish
Samad Behrangi
22 min
The Beretta Always Wins (A chapter from a novel)
Tunisia
The smell was stuck in my nose and wouldn’t go. Whenever I drew air into my lungs, the smell took over, and all the torture I went through that night came rushing back. Before emailing the...
The Beretta Always Wins (A chapter from a novel)
Kamal Riahi
4 min
One of Them
Tunisia
Emerging from his plastic cave awash in filth, Crow “J” toddled unsteadily over to the paved road with sullen, terse gasps. The radiant disk was rising from the mouth of the earth as he advanced through...
One of Them
Aziz Jamal Yahyawi
2 min
Madame Bovary from Neveh Tsedek
Israel
Like at other periods of metaphysical ardor, at this time too, the body (that of a woman, to be sure) wasn’t taken very seriously.  This may be why even the dockworkers in the port that day...
Madame Bovary from Neveh Tsedek
Nurit Zarchi
10 min
Insurrection – A chapter from “The Gorilla”
Tunisia
About one o’clock in the afternoon. The wind is busy rolling along some beer-can that has been drained of its contents in the deserted street. A massive silence links the arch of the Sea Gate with...
Insurrection – A chapter from “The Gorilla”
Kamal Riahi
5 min
Taqsim Hyena
Israel
The day I moved from the city to the country my dog returned his spirit to the God who gave it. I do not know whether it was the shock of the move or just a...
Taqsim Hyena
Nir Soffer-Dudek
4 min
And Then — Nina Simone Began to Sing
Israel
This city — this city is so fucking expensive that I can’t bear it. And it’s so fabulous that sometimes I can’t bear it. Expensive and horrible — that would be better. To enjoy it, you...
And Then — Nina Simone Began to Sing
Tasha Karluka
4 min
A Grainless Mill
Tunisia
“I haven’t written a word for a year (…) I’ve tried to write. Every day I sit at the typewriter, but I can’t get started.” – J.D Salinger “What’s a director if he can’t engage in...
A Grainless Mill
Ziad Abd el-Qadir
6 min
The Opportunity
Israel
He played his role well. He showed no sign that he knew what was going on behind his back. He could be truly satisfied with himself. And when Bennet and Yossi Cohen told him why they...
The Opportunity
Iftach Alony
15 min
Getting Ahead
Sweden
Sometime in June, my back started to itch. I thought I’d been bitten by a mosquito or some other insect. That’s how it felt. It was always worst when I’d been out running and worked up...
Getting Ahead
Jonas Karlsson
31 min
The Nightmare (a chapter from a novel)
Gaza
I grew up suddenly like a tree. Once I had a dream when I was five years old. This dream visited me again. I slept for ten minutes that night. It was hard. The medicine that...
The Nightmare (a chapter from a novel)
Abdalhadi Alijla
7 min
Everyone’s Favourite Blonde
Mexico
“Evangelina Segunda, you have the beauty of Artemis: Venus herself fiercely envies the innocence of your smile” Sunday Magazine, Issue 54, El Dictamen (13 February, 1983)   The centre of Veracruz is full of ghosts, my...
Everyone’s Favourite Blonde
Fernanda Melchor
8 min
The Enigmatic Crime of the Signals Private
Iraq
Gentlemen, my name is Jamal Ahmad. I work as a signals private in Forward Reconnaissance Unit 312, engaging the American enemy in the south.   I confess in your presence, and I am of sound mind,...
The Enigmatic Crime of the Signals Private
Ali Badr
7 min
The Shoe
Israel
I had headed out to buy a pack of cigarettes and a few tomatoes, and there was a black shoe in the entrance to the building. A black shoe, just one, on the second tile beyond...
The Shoe
Hisham Naffa
5 min
In Praise of the Hurricane
Spain
I’ve always enjoyed everyday violence. I remember one incident in particular: broken glass in the dark. I’m not certain that it’s a real memory but when I relive the scene, I find it hard to contain...
In Praise of the Hurricane
Alejandro Morellón
4 min
Inside Outdoors
Argentina
The giant is starting to rot and Minerval still has no news from the man that’s dreaming it. The programmer must be sick, she thinks: if he were dead the forest would dissolve and then the...
Inside Outdoors
Martín Felipe Castagnet
7 min
Extinction
Iraq
In the year 3000AD, after many years of wars – world wars, civil wars, religious wars ­– after the heavens grew angry and smote the waters with meteorites from a vengeful hell, then there came thunderbolts,...
Extinction
Adham Adel
3 min
Mortimer Gray’s History of Death
UK
I was an utterly unexceptional child of the twenty-ninth century, comprehensively engineered for emortality while I was still a more-or-less inchoate blastula and decanted from an artificial womb in Naburn Hatchery in the county of York...
Mortimer Gray’s History of Death
Brian Stableford
10 min
Like Hunger, Like Love
Colombia
For Carlos, for our hunger   As a boy I was hungry, bam. I came home running, jumping, and my mother would say: “Cut it out! Don’t move so much or you’ll be even hungrier,” but...
Like Hunger, Like Love
Giuseppe Caputo
12 min
Nightly Lament
Palestine
I could smell the stench of death. From the first shades of darkness, I smelt the stench of death. A stench above me, a stench below me. Wherever I turned, I smelt the same stench. A...
Nightly Lament
Naji Daher
5 min
Gabe
USA
Tommy’s cousin Gabe. Tommy’s distant cousin Gabe from Stillwater, Minnesota. Tommy’s cousin Gabe, related to my husband through divorce and remarriage, in lieu of actual blood, who arrives on my front porch at dinnertime with a...
Gabe
Holiday Reinhorn
7 min
Its Name is ‘Bird’
Tunisia
Jalal wasn’t happy unless he was wreaking havoc. He was the village’s fearsome little devil. At any time he might raid the neighbours’ chicken coops and rabbit hutches. Then we’d see him grilling the meat outdoors,...
Its Name is ‘Bird’
Kamal Riahi
3 min
Jabir Sabeel
Sudan
Citizen Jabir Sabeel awoke to the alarm of his Nokia mobile phone at exactly 6:05. He tried, like every morning, to cover his face with a pillow, but he felt an awful weakness. He could not...
Jabir Sabeel
Mansour Mohammad El Souwaim
2 min
Close to the Body – Fifth Place
Israel
I remember a tree. Its crown awning the path. I remember a large trunk, thicker than any I had seen before. I remember roots cleaving the black earth, bursting it asunder, like snakes fighting free and...
Close to the Body – Fifth Place
Sarit Elkon
9 min
The Pink Tuber
Russia
On Thursday Anna found out that she was pregnant. When she came home from work, she didn’t start dinner but instead sat at the tiny kitchen table, put her gaunt hands on the new oilcloth, and...
The Pink Tuber
Vladimir Sorokin
6 min
Some People Run in Shorts
Faroe Islands
A runner asked me one morning on my way to work, “Hey, you. Can you tell me what time it is?” I replied, “Ten to.” “To what?” he asked. I stared at him briefly. “To eight,”...
Some People Run in Shorts
Sólrún Michelsen
7 min
The Socialist
Japan
He was a young socialist. His father, a minor official, had thus threatened to disown him. Yet he had remained true to his convictions, for he was possessed of both burning zeal and supportive friends. They...
The Socialist
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
2 min
The Rose Garden (A Fairy Tale)
Israel
High up, stretching into the sky, loomed the tower of the fair princess. It was made of pure crystal and its pinnacle was bedecked with gold and precious stones. All around it, a multi-hued, large rose...
The Rose Garden (A Fairy Tale)
Lea Goldberg
7 min
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