English
0 min 70 min
End Times
USA
Elli wouldn’t let me stop until we’d crossed the line into Utah. She was a nail in the passenger seat—rigid, sharp, her blue eyes darting back and forth between the speedometer and the double yellow lines....
End Times
Maxim Loskutoff
12 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
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
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
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
The Cat that Walked by Himself
UK
Hear and attend and listen; for this befell and behappened and became and was, O my Best Beloved, when the Tame animals were wild. The Dog was wild, and the Horse was wild, and the Cow was...
The Cat that Walked by Himself
Rudyard Kipling
16 min
Old Mr. Rabbit, He’s a Good Fisherman
USA
“Brer Rabbit en Brer Fox wuz like some chilluns w’at I knows un,” said Uncle Remus, regarding the little boy, who had come to hear another story, with an affectation of great solemnity. “Bofe unum wuz...
Old Mr. Rabbit, He’s a Good Fisherman
Joel Chandler Harris
3 min
The Dog
Argentina
I was in a bus, sitting by the window, looking out at the street. Suddenly a dog started barking very loudly nearby. I tried to see where it was. So did some other passengers. The bus...
The Dog
César Aira
13 min
Saragossa in Berlin
Israel
Boaz called out to Chicko: “I saw those in the Golan, waiting for hot air to come so they can fly, be birds.” He was stretched out on the couch, watching a TV show about animal...
Saragossa in Berlin
Iftach Alony
8 min
Monkeys
Brazil
That first time we had a marmoset in the house was around New Year’s. We had no running water and no maid, people were lining up to buy meat, the summer heat had exploded—and that was...
Monkeys
Clarice Lispector
3 min
Lions
Argentina
These days we flee, hiding in dark corners, shying away from daylight. But things weren’t always like this. There was a time when they were just pests. The lions first began to appear in public parks,...
Lions
Bef
6 min
The Lookout
Argentina
He brought him home unexpectedly one night. They’d happened to cross paths at the Carlos Pellegrini station; like in the movies, the two were coming from opposite directions and they bumped into each other. Fate. To...
The Lookout
Alejandra Zina
7 min
The Way of Nature
Sweden
He had had the pet shop at the same address for thirty years. He had seen budgerigars and lovebirds come and go. Waltzing mice, guinea pigs, hamsters, lizards, stick insects and tarantulas. They had all passed...
The Way of Nature
Sara Paborn
27 min
An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It
UK
This rock was perhaps an island once, but now all that is left is a dowager’s hump breaching the ocean sheer on all but one side and on that side it slopes so that you can...
An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It
Jessie Greengrass
5 min
At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom
USA
Ten candles in a fish stick tell you it’s Gully’s birthday. The birthday girl is the center of attention; she squints into the popping flash cubes. The black cat seems to know every smooth cat pose...
At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom
Amy Hempel
7 min
The Dog Lover’s Handbook
Hungary
He tore open the door, swearing, the dog pressed to his lap. He walked up and down and eventually calmed himself. He propped the dog in its place beside the desk. He poured out some water...
The Dog Lover’s Handbook
László Darvasi
12 min
Outside the Door
Germany
I go out in the yard with the dog. Just after two in the morning and the night’s very warm; the summer’s come back again this August after a long cool and rainy stretch. The hottest...
Outside the Door
Clemens Meyer
16 min
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