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“Survivor”
Uruguay
My sister is going out with a guy who got famous for being on a reality show in the United States. She met him at the cafe where she works in L.A., where she’s lived since...
“Survivor”
Vera Giaconi
17 min
Children of God
Germany
It was the first Michael had heard of the girl. His housekeeper was telling him about her: she claimed— Mandy did—that there was no father. She lived in the neighboring village of W. The housekeeper laughed,...
Children of God
Peter Stamm
19 min
Coffee
Israel
My father died at six in the evening. After the doctor told us the news, we went home. Ariane drove, and I sat next to her. Neither of us spoke. The taste of the coffee from...
Coffee
Gadi Taub
7 min
Bear Ears
Colombia
I came across him the other day when I was looking for the snorkel fins in the storage space. I didn’t even remember that I’d left him there. He was covered in dust and had a...
Bear Ears
Carolina Vegas
8 min
Talitha Kumi
Israel
In September everyone’s looking for an apartment. Especially in Jerusalem. Especially students. This is the busy season for Yochanan Dvir, apartment renovator and owner of a few of them himself. Two small apartments which he renovated...
Talitha Kumi
Yitzhak Auerbach-Orpaz
22 min
Fortunatus Rex and co
UK
There was once a lady who found herself in middle life with but a slight income. Knowing herself to be insufficiently educated to be able to practise any other trade or calling, she of course decided,...
Fortunatus Rex and co
Edith Nesbit
20 min
The Carriage
Russia
The Death-Bed Notes of a Fool   My life is coming to an end. Soon Death will tap its boney finger on my door… soon! Suffering has so withered my chest that no maiden’s kisses can...
The Carriage
Nikolay Nekrasov
9 min
The Need to Be a Son
Chile
How could I serve myself from such distant plates, when the home had broken, when not even mother could be forced from the lips. How could I dine on nothing. César Vallejo   I was born...
The Need to Be a Son
Andrea Jeftanovic
10 min
The Thief
Israel
The last item on the shopping list was bread. Two o’clock in the afternoon. August. And the insistence to walk all the way to the bread shop. Specification is the sign of affluence and civilization; that...
The Thief
Sharron Hass
3 min
The Priest of Shiga Temple and His Love
Japan
According to Ashin’s “Essentials of Salvation,” the Ten Pleasures are but a drop in the ocean when compared to the joys of the Pure Land. In that Land the earth is made of emerald and the...
The Priest of Shiga Temple and His Love
Yukio Mishima
24 min
The Man Who No Longer Wanted to Know Anything
Germany
‘From now on, I don’t want to know anything,’ said the man who no longer wanted to know anything. ‘I don’t want to know a thing.’ That’s easily said. It is easily said. And hardly had...
The Man Who No Longer Wanted to Know Anything
Peter Bichsel
5 min
The Polish Boxer
Guatemala
69752. That he had it tattooed there, on his left forearm, so he wouldn’t forget it. That’s what my grandfather told me. And that’s what I grew up believing. In the 1970s, telephone numbers in Guatemala...
The Polish Boxer
Eduardo Halfon
16 min
Invisible Mending
Israel
In the geography lesson the teacher, Mr. Levy, was talking about the Yarkon, and for this reason Hefzibah locked herself in the Girls’ Room during the morning recess. At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher...
Invisible Mending
Ruth Almog
20 min
Araby
Ireland
North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers’ School set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two storeys stood at the blind end, detached from its...
Araby
James Joyce
6 min
In View of the Geese
Germany
What you might think just after you’ve said goodbye to him and just before you leave the house: 1. What’s that photo on the wall? 2. Is that her in the photo on the wall? 3....
In View of the Geese
Kenah Cusanit
5 min
The Doorbell
Spain
When I arrived in Brussels, the supposed end of the European dream was all the media could talk about. General levels of uncertainty had increased, as had violence on public transport – for instance, when one...
The Doorbell
Cristian Crusat
11 min
The Deliverers of Their Country
UK
It all began with Effie’s getting something in her eye. It hurt very much indeed, and it felt something like a red-hot spark – only it seemed to have legs as well, and wings like a...
The Deliverers of Their Country
Edith Nesbit
19 min
Time and Again
USA
Mr. Weeks called me out again tonight, and I look back down the hall of my house. I left the kitchen light burning. This is an empty old house since the old lady died. When Mr....
Time and Again
Breece D'J Pancake
6 min
Engagement Ring
Catalonia
How quickly that dark line gets longer, how quickly the snuffed-out candles proliferate. CAVAFY, “Candles” (Tr. Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard)   “It used to be that wars would thin the herd. Now that there’s peace,...
Engagement Ring
Jordi Nopca
11 min
You’re Only Bleeding
Argentina
She called you two weeks ago. Just like that. Out of the blue. Today is Mother’s Day, and you’re going to see her again. You wanted to make as good a start to the day as...
You’re Only Bleeding
Matías Capelli
16 min
Cracks | Mainland
Slovenia
Cracks   Many stories have happened. This is one of them. You have a wife, you have kids, you have a job, you have a car, you have a house in the suburbs. It appears you’ll...
Cracks | Mainland
Andrej Blatnik
3 min
The Child
Germany
At home, in my flat, in the three neat and prettily decorated rooms belonging to me and nobody but me, lives a little child that torments me. We’re so attached by now that I can’t get...
The Child
Antonia Baum
14 min
The Invisible Man
UK
In the cool blue twilight of two steep streets in Camden Town, the shop at the corner, a confectioner’s, glowed like the butt of a cigar. One should rather say, perhaps, like the butt of a...
The Invisible Man
G.K. Chesterton
25 min
Harlamov
Israel
Mr. Harlamov was a big man. He was a fearless man too and when he sat himself down at the harmonium (which was a kind of piano played with a foot bellows, or a kind of...
Harlamov
S. Yizhar
9 min
If That’s How It Is
Austria
It has to be done, that’s clear, and today’s the day. Anne has an appointment – today, not tomorrow – and she’ll go there, and they’ll suck the embryo out of her. She’s going on her...
If That’s How It Is
Dorian Steinhoff
14 min
How Mr Threddie the Tailor Became King
Poland
In the town of Taydarayda there once lived a tailor by the name of Mr Joseph Threddie. He had a little pointy beard just like a billy goat, and he was always jolly. He was very...
How Mr Threddie the Tailor Became King
Kornel Makuszyński
11 min
One Too Many
Mexico
Someone, probably the ticket inspector, told him that his was the only suitcase. No one else was going to Alquila today. There’s no way it can get lost. But Hernández insisted on taking it with him....
One Too Many
Emiliano Monge
9 min
The Boys
Russia
“Volodia is here!” cried some one in the courtyard.   “Voloditchka is here!” shrieked Natalia, rushing into the dining-room. The whole family ran to the window, for they had been expecting their Volodia for hours. At...
The Boys
Anton Chekhov
9 min
One Minute Stories
Hungary
Autumn Translated by Mark Baczoni   Sylvester Gács, a forester with the North Hungarian Forestry Service, patrolled the woods (every tree of which he knew by heart), doing the rounds of the pathways he himself had...
One Minute Stories
István Örkény
8 min
Like Penelope
Russia
With a leg–tossing military marching step (toes in, heels out, knees to the side, pelvis down), Stasik the mosquito wended his way home. He had asked the veterinarian, Akop the condor, to bandage the spot where...
Like Penelope
Lyudmila Petrushevskaya
2 min
Eve’s Diary
USA
Translated from the Original   SATURDAY. – I am almost a whole day old, now. I arrived yesterday. That is as it seems to me. And it must be so, for if there was a day-before-yesterday...
Eve’s Diary
Mark Twain
12 min
Husband and Wife
Scotland
The trader accustomed to the manners of Eastern Polynesia has a lesson to learn among the Gilberts. The ridi is but a spare attire; as late as thirty years back the women went naked until marriage;...
Husband and Wife
Robert Louis Stevenson
10 min
A House in the Burbs
Argentina
In February 2001 we found exactly what we were looking for: a wooden house in the suburbs of Miami with large windows overlooking a canal with green water that flowed into the Atlantic. We considered ourselves...
A House in the Burbs
Valeria Correa Fiz
12 min
A Protracted Evening. The Art of the Japanese Writer Yasushi Inoue
Germany
I owe my acquaintance with the works of the Japanese writer Yasushi Inoue to a young colleague with whom I once spent a long and arduous evening. At the time I had been living apart from...
A Protracted Evening. The Art of the Japanese Writer Yasushi Inoue
Volker Zastrow
11 min
Will Somebody Please Shut the Gate
Israel
A few months before Mother’s madness was officially announced, though there were hints that something out of the ordinary was happening, and our daily routine suffered small blows, life went on and the days were all...
Will Somebody Please Shut the Gate
Mira Magen
13 min
The Spectator
Colombia
Ricardo González loved to go to the cinema. His first major cinematic memory, many years ago now, was of a black-and-white film about cops and robbers. Before that he only went to the cinema occasionally, once...
The Spectator
Andrés Caicedo
12 min
Death of the Pugilist (Or, the famous battle of Jacob Burke & Blindman McGraw)
USA
Who was Burke? His beginnings.   Born a caulbearer in the Bristol slums, in the quayside heap known only as “the Rat,” Jacob Burke, who would battle the great McGraw on that fateful day in 1824,...
Death of the Pugilist (Or, the famous battle of Jacob Burke & Blindman McGraw)
Daniel Mason
23 min
Drummer for the Czar
Germany
I’ve never had any grand experiences myself – which doesn’t bother me at all by the way; I’m not fool enough to envy some world-traveler, I’ve read too much in Seydlitz or the unabridged Brehm for...
Drummer for the Czar
Arno Schmidt
5 min
Why Are We Going Back to Watan?
Germany
Why can’t we try Mike or Robert or Knosi? Because the guys say that Mike and Robert and Knosi are busy today and that we’ve no other choice, so up we go again, back up to...
Why Are We Going Back to Watan?
Andreas Stichmann
7 min
The Monkey’s Paw
UK
Without, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of Laburnam Villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly. Father and son were at chess, the former, who possessed ideas about...
The Monkey’s Paw
W.W. Jacobs
15 min
The Little Match Girl
Denmark
Most terribly cold it was; it snowed, and was nearly quite dark, and evening – the last evening of the year. In this cold and darkness there went along the street a poor little girl, bareheaded,...
The Little Match Girl
Hans Christian Andersen
4 min
Your Microwave
Germany
Date: Mon, August 19 20:41:42-0700 (PDT)   From: Henry To: Customer service Re: Your microwave   To whom it may concern, I’m writing to you regarding a matter that may seem trivial, even irrelevant at first...
Your Microwave
Philipp Schönthaler
20 min
The Story of an Hour
USA
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death. It was her sister Josephine who told her,...
The Story of an Hour
Kate Chopin
4 min
The Size of My Love
Uruguay
It was the whole matter of the gifts that made her think back to that night. Whenever they fought and he threw her out of the house, he always made her return the gifts he’d given...
The Size of My Love
Fernanda Trías
16 min
The Son
Uruguay
It’s a rough summer morning in Misiones, with all the sun, heat and tranquility that the season can provide. Mother Nature, open to the skies, seems proud of herself. Like the sun, the heat, and the...
The Son
Horacio Quiroga
6 min
Roussillon’s heart
Italy
The Decameron: Day the Fourth, The Ninth Story SIR GUILLAUME DE ROUSSILLON GIVETH HIS WIFE TO EAT THE HEART OF SIR GUILLAUME DE GUARDESTAING BY HIM SLAIN AND LOVED OF HER, WHICH SHE AFTER COMING TO...
Roussillon’s heart
Giovanni Boccaccio
5 min
The Decameron: Day the Fifth, The Ninth Story
Italy
FEDERIGO DEGLI ALBERIGHI LOVETH AND IS NOT LOVED. HE WASTETH HIS SUBSTANCE IN PRODIGAL HOSPITALITY TILL THERE IS LEFT HIM BUT ONE SOLE FALCON, WHICH, HAVING NOUGHT ELSE, HE GIVETH HIS MISTRESS TO EAT, ON HER...
The Decameron: Day the Fifth, The Ninth Story
Giovanni Boccaccio
10 min
Guadeloupe
Israel
It happened in Guadeloupe, the island that lies in the Pacific ocean. The volcano of Guadeloupe conspired to erupt at any moment. Let the reader take shelter and wait, for what we are concerned with here...
Guadeloupe
Shoham Smith
6 min
The Picture Horse
China
A certain Mr. Ts’ui, of Lin-ch’ing, was too poor to keep his garden walls in repair, and used often to find a strange horse lying down on the grass inside. It was a black horse marked...
The Picture Horse
Pu Sung-ling
2 min
The Last Charge of the Russian Cossacks
France
She saw me, she sighed, she guessed right away. “It was well worth it,” she said. She looked at me for a long time. “Lucie would like you to help her with her homework,” she said....
The Last Charge of the Russian Cossacks
Mathias Énard
4 min
The Fall of the House of Usher
USA
“Son coeur est un luth suspendu; Sitôt qu’on le touche il rèsonne.” – De Béranger.   During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung...
The Fall of the House of Usher
Edgar Allan Poe
28 min
The Real Thing
UK
When the porter’s wife (she used to answer the house-bell), announced “A gentleman—with a lady, sir,” I had, as I often had in those days, for the wish was father to the thought, an immediate vision...
The Real Thing
Henry James
42 min
The Rocking-Horse Winner
UK
There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck. She married for love, and the love turned to dust. She had bonny children, yet she felt they...
The Rocking-Horse Winner
D.H. Lawrence
21 min
A Simple Soul
France
For half a century the housewives of Pont-l’Eveque had envied Madame Aubain her servant Felicite. For a hundred francs a year, she cooked and did the housework, washed, ironed, mended, harnessed the horse, fattened the poultry,...
A Simple Soul
Gustave Flaubert
48 min
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