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Two Collectors
UK
The delight of his youth had become the burden of his old age. Forty years ago Wormald desired nothing better than to spend a whole day in book-hunting. Regardless of fatigue and of shoe-leather, he tramped...
Two Collectors
George Gissing
5 min
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
USA
Kilimanjaro is a snow covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai “Ngàje Ngài,” the House of God. Close to the western...
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Ernest Hemingway
36 min
Spunk
USA
A giant of a brown-skinned man sauntered up the one street of the Village and out into the palmetto thickets with a small pretty woman clinging lovingly to his arm. “Looka theah, folkses!” cried Elijah Mosley,...
Spunk
Zora Neale Hurston
8 min
Sweat
USA
  It was eleven o’clock of a Spring night in Florida. It was Sunday. Any other night, Delia Jones would have been in bed for two hours by this time. But she was a wash-woman, and...
Sweat
Zora Neale Hurston
18 min
Gentle Breathing
Russia
In the cemetery above a fresh mound of earth stands a new cross of oak⁠—strong, heavy, smooth, a pleasant thing to look at. It is April, but the days are grey. From a long way off...
Gentle Breathing
Ivan Bunin
9 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
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
Services
USA
September 12, 1950. The survivors limp down the mountain to a 6×6 that drops them at the field service platoon behind the hills. Seven men remaining from forty, stunned and filthy as they line up for...
Services
Gordon Haber
8 min
The Translator I Never Wanted to Be
USA
Eight or nine years ago – I think it was summer 2012 – I found myself browsing the shelves at a bookstore in Tehran. Outposts of the local bookstore chain Shahr-e Ketab glitter like branches of...
The Translator I Never Wanted to Be
Mariam Rahmani
13 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
Dogs of Summer
Spain
On the Night of San Juan, Nana built a gigantic fire. She built it in the middle of the garden, and it was several metres tall. On the Night of San Juan, you couldn’t breathe for...
Dogs of Summer
Andrea Abreu
12 min
The Fugitive
Russia
At nine o’clock one morning in June, Captain Popov rang the doorbell. No one answered for a long time, but finally he heard the sound of scurrying. “Who’s there? Who is it?” a plaintive female voice...
The Fugitive
Lyudmila Ulitskaya
26 min
Two Women
Denmark
When Britta was depressed, nervous, and restless like this, so not even a complete reorganization of all the furniture in the house, or the preparation of a complicated dinner, could help her, there were only two...
Two Women
Tove Ditlevsen
7 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
Rollingwood
USA
It’s still dark when the weeping erupts, so Mather knows it’s early. How early he isn’t sure, but he won’t be able to fall back asleep, so it doesn’t matter. He pulls the extra pillow over...
Rollingwood
Ben Marcus
30 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
A Girl in the Café
Israel
To Tami Berger In the corner café that had recently changed owners stood a parrot’s cage. A green cage with a domed top, a swing fixed inside it, and a slot and small drawer at the...
A Girl in the Café
Ronit Matalon
30 min
Like Penelope
Russia
 Here once lived a girl who was beloved by her mother but no one else. The girl was used to it and didn’t get too upset. Her name was Oksana – a glamorous, fashionable name —...
Like Penelope
Lyudmila Petrushevskaya
16 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
The Death of a Bachelor
Austria
Someone had knocked at the door, quite gently, but the doctor awoke at once, turned on the light, and sat up in bed. He glanced at his wife who was sleeping quietly, picked up his dressing-gown,...
The Death of a Bachelor
Arthur Schnitzler
17 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
A Prison Out of the Movies
Mexico
The transfer began at two in the morning, while a northerly wind blustered furiously outside. Some of the prisoners didn’t even have time to dress before the Federal agents burst into their cells. Shoving and kicking,...
A Prison Out of the Movies
Fernanda Melchor
5 min
It Will All Be Over by Next Rosh Hashanah
Israel
An old woman cleans my house. She sends the money she earns to her children and grandchildren – maybe her great-grandchildren too. They all live in a nice house in some evergreen part of Europe, by...
It Will All Be Over by Next Rosh Hashanah
Vered Singer
8 min
The Battle of Tel el-Hawa
Palestine
“It was a pitched battle…” – a description he had often read out to his classmates from history textbooks but never thought he would one day use as he had just done, speaking to his friend,...
The Battle of Tel el-Hawa
Asmaa al-Ghoul
8 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
Mandelbaum Gate
Palestine
“Well then tell her that she intends to get out of here, mister,” the Israeli policeman called out. He was standing, arms folded, at one entrance to Mandelbaum Gate when I explained to him that we...
Mandelbaum Gate
Emile Habiby
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
Baganda (A chapter from a novel)
Tunisia
Origin of the story: The story started by chance. It was Sunday evening and work that day hadn’t been too hard. Monday’s edition mostly comprised investigations, interviews and regional reports prepared in advance, and I often...
Baganda (A chapter from a novel)
Shukri al-Mabkhout
5 min
The Route through Purgatory
Sudan
The sands lolled and swam in the sun’s blazing rays all day, then when darkness fell, they patiently waited for the sun to rise. As far as the eye could see, the sands swelled in every...
The Route through Purgatory
Omayma Abdullah
7 min
The Sans-Gueule
France
They found them lying next to each other on the burned grass, and gathered them both up. Their clothes had been blown off in shreds. The explosion had burned out the numbers and shattered the metal...
The Sans-Gueule
Marcel Schwob
7 min
A Pleasant Countenance
Syria
I don’t know how many hours I’d spent in solitary confinement. I was alone with four cold silent walls. I couldn’t hear anyone’s voice in that gloomy cell, and I don’t think anyone could hear me....
A Pleasant Countenance
Jan Dost
4 min
He and She
Russia
They are nomads. Only Paris is graced with their presence for months; they are stingy to Berlin, Vienna, Neapoli, Madrid and other capitals. In Paris they feel quasi-at home. For them, Paris is the capital, their...
He and She
Anton Chekhov
11 min
Chaim and Me (A chapter from novel)
Algeria
Due to the imminent end of my summer break, and shortly before resuming my work at the Teacher Training College at the beginning of the third week of September, I reassured my wife, Zuleika al-Nadra, that...
Chaim and Me (A chapter from novel)
Habib Sayah
6 min
The Visit
Tunisia
“These cities have devoured you,” he said as he pulled out the chair and sat down in the middle of the cramped room. He lit his pipe with a lighter that looked almost like a pen....
The Visit
Unknown Author
6 min
Black Foam
Eritrea
A Chapter from the novel, Black Foam   (7)   He placed the suitcase lightly into the tray, and then took off to meet it on the other side. However, the soldier across from him waved...
Black Foam
Haji Jaber
6 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
A Pair of Eyeglasses
Italy
“As long as there’s the sun … the sun!” the voice of Don Peppino Quaglia crooned softly near the doorway of the low, dark, basement apartment. “Leave it to God,” answered the humble and faintly cheerful...
A Pair of Eyeglasses
Anna Maria Ortese
25 min
Deception or Dreams of the Man Who Didn’t Lose His Shadow  
Algeria
Was it merely deception or something more?   The paths were so exhausting, and the days were so hard! Wouldn’t it have been better to take the short-cuts? Nothing is of any use now. All that...
Deception or Dreams of the Man Who Didn’t Lose His Shadow  
Waciny Laredj
11 min
The Lover’s Tale as told to Kamila Shamsie
UK
John’s childhood ambition was to be a pilot. Let’s sit with that a while. A boy grew up, like so many other boys all over the world, watching the skies, imagining himself in the endless blue....
The Lover’s Tale as told to Kamila Shamsie
Kamila Shamsie
15 min
Scandal
Palestine
Although I was only ten years old, I could understand that something important had happened. Every time our bedroom door opened, my mother shut it again so we wouldn’t hear the frantic whispering in the living...
Scandal
Alaa Hlehel
4 min
The Tree of Knowledge
UK
It was one of the secret opinions, such as we all have, of Peter Brench that his main success in life would have consisted in his never having committed himself about the work, as it was...
The Tree of Knowledge
Henry James
23 min
The Dead
Ireland
Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, was literally run off her feet. Hardly had she brought one gentleman into the little pantry behind the office on the ground floor and helped him off with his overcoat than the...
The Dead
James Joyce
62 min
The Dependant’s Tale as told to Marina Lewycka
Ukraine
The nighTMaRe always sTaRTs in the same way: a big man standing at the foot of my bed, shouting at me. ‘Get up! Hurry hurry hurry! Pack up your stuff! We’ve come to take you away.’...
The Dependant’s Tale as told to Marina Lewycka
Marina Lewycka
9 min
The Detainee’s Tale as told to Ali Smith
Scotland
The first thing that happens, you tell me, is that school stops. We are meeting in a room in a London university so that you can tell me, in anodyne safe surroundings, a bit about your...
The Detainee’s Tale as told to Ali Smith
Ali Smith
19 min
Birth
Sudan
It was her panting that drew me over. I was exhausted, as the new work regime had been sucking every last drop of life out of us. But my misreading of the situation (what with the...
Birth
Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin
3 min
Miracle of the Horses
Russia
(A true story) Since she was beautiful and foolish —and she became more foolish when she was beautiful and more beautiful when she was foolish — and since he loved her, and since he had nothing...
Miracle of the Horses
Marina Tsvetayeva
7 min
Waltz on East 6th Street
USA
Years ago, Aunt Renata squeezed a picture into my hand when my mother wasn’t looking. Aunt Renata wasn’t really my aunt, but rather someone to whom my mother had clung like a sister, like blood. In...
Waltz on East 6th Street
Tehila Lieberman
11 min
The Last Leaf
USA
Old Nannie sat hunched upon herself expecting her own death momentarily. The Grandmother had said to her at parting, with the easy prophecy of the aged, that this might be their last farewell on earth; they...
The Last Leaf
O. Henry
6 min
A Handful of Dirt
Syria
As soon as he saw his friend, who had just arrived from back home, in the airport arrivals lounge, he asked him, “Did you bring it?” His friend gestured to the backpack hanging off of his...
A Handful of Dirt
Jan Dost
8 min
Weather
USA
His name is Charles Jenkins, but everyone calls him Zeke. No one in Little Bend, Zeke included, knows why. This is what people know about Zeke: when Zeke was fourteen, back when he was Charlie, he...
Weather
Elizabeth Gonzalez
16 min
The Unaccompanied Minor’s Tale
Nigeria
As told to Inua Ellams   Senebesh is holding Dani’s hand under the rusting jeep in a car park in Khartoum. She is trying to stifle the laughter which is as ripe as fruit in her...
The Unaccompanied Minor’s Tale
Inua Ellams
9 min
The River Warta
USA
Now that Caroline lived alone for the first time in her life, she began to be irritated by the cleanliness of her house. When she left something somewhere, it stayed there. If she didn’t enter a...
The River Warta
Amy Gustine
20 min
The Last Communist
USA
 My parents always had visitors. They would come in the evening and sit in folding chairs on the back porch of our small house in New Brunswick. They greeted me—an only child —with the warmth of...
The Last Communist
Steven Schwartz
32 min
Sun Shields
Israel
Yuda is banging the wall with his pillow; Moishe is switching the lights off and on again. I lay silent, not involved in the nightly disturbance. “He’s coming!” calls Zvika, the sun-shield watcher. We get under...
Sun Shields
Yariv Sapir
2 min
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