English
0 min 70 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 Grand Inquisitor
Russia
“Quite impossible, as you see, to start without an introduction,” laughed Ivan. “Well, then, I mean to place the event described in the poem in the sixteenth century, an age—as you must have been told at...
The Grand Inquisitor
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
25 min
A Short Story Writer Who doesn’t Obey Army Orders
Palestine
As I was sitting in a taxi stuck in a queue of cars at the Atara Israeli army checkpoint, heading to Nablus to meet a beautiful widow I’d got to know on Facebook, it struck me...
A Short Story Writer Who doesn’t Obey Army Orders
Ziad Khadash
3 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
Seeing them see the sea
Israel
“Ana bahib al-bahar”, I love the sea, the girl said. They were walking, stumbling along on the sand, four children and one grown woman. Backs, shoulders and hands were laden with backpacks and bags, the woman’s...
Seeing them see the sea
Ilana Hammerman
8 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
Reverse Bug
USA
“Let’s get the announcements out of the way,” said Ilka, the teacher, to her foreigners in Conversational English for Adults. “Tomorrow evening the institute is holding a symposium. Ahmed,” she asked the Turkish student with the...
Reverse Bug
Lore Segal
14 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
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
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
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
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
The Last Arab Man
Tunisia
I was in the process of completing some research on the progress of democratization in Tunisia under the threat of terrorism when a message notification popped up. The message read: “I would like to connect with...
The Last Arab Man
Maha Jouini
12 min
The Orange Ribbon
Palestine
As she waited for the train, she grabbed an orange ribbon out of the hand of a settler who had a blond beard and a white kippa. Then she sat down again in the shade. The...
The Orange Ribbon
Iyad Barghouti
7 min
Two Royalists in Quatorze Juillet (a chapter from “An Iraqi in Paris”)
Iraq
The waiter at the Café Au Chai de l’Abbaye, Claude, asked me to finish my drink quickly. It was a quarter past two in the morning and he had to close up the café. I walked...
Two Royalists in Quatorze Juillet (a chapter from “An Iraqi in Paris”)
Samuel Shimon
19 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 Curfew Tolls
USA
“It is not enough to be the possessor of genius—the time and the man must conjoin. An Alexander the Great, born into an age of profound peace, might scarce have troubled the world—a Newton, grown up...
The Curfew Tolls
Stephen Vincent Benét
25 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
Cannibalism In The Cars
USA
I visited St. Louis lately, and on my way West, after changing cars at Terre Haute, Indiana, a mild, benevolent-looking gentleman of about forty-five, or maybe fifty, came in at one of the way-stations and sat...
Cannibalism In The Cars
Mark Twain
13 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 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
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
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