English
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Jacob Wallenstein, Notes for a Future Biography
Israel
Faster than light space travel to distant galaxies has been proven impossible. The existence of other planets or alien races, therefore, remains mere conjecture as these cannot be reached or contacted. Miraculous machines that let you...
Jacob Wallenstein, Notes for a Future Biography
Shay Azoulay
10 min
A Play
Russia
“Pavel Vassilyevitch, there’s a lady here, asking for you,” Luka announced. “She’s been waiting a good hour….” Pavel Vassilyevitch had only just finished lunch. Hearing of the lady, he frowned and said: “Oh, damn her! Tell...
A Play
Anton Chekhov
7 min
The Secret
Argentina
The door of the bus opened. From her seat, Elena watched the passengers climb in. “Where does he think all those people are going to go?” she asked her daughter, who was sitting next to the...
The Secret
Alejandra Laurencich
6 min
Copy and Paste
Israel
In those days I talked a lot about weapons. There was Alex, the lone soldier who lived with the old lady. It was unclear whether they were related. On Friday afternoons Alex was always out on...
Copy and Paste
Yoav Rosen
11 min
On the Day of the Crucifixion
Russia
On that terrible day, when the universal injustice was committed and Jesus Christ was crucified in Golgotha among robbers—on that day, from early morning, Ben-Tovit, a tradesman of Jerusalem, suffered from an unendurable toothache. His toothache...
On the Day of the Crucifixion
Leonid Andreyev
5 min
Does Anyone Care about the Dust at Hemingway’s House?
Mexico
When he woke up, Ana had left, and he had an idea for a story. He reached for his glasses on the bedside table, which was actually just a shelf because their bedroom only had enough...
Does Anyone Care about the Dust at Hemingway’s House?
José Miguel Tomasena
6 min
Another Love Story
Israel
1. A month before Independence Day, 2048   The Chief Scientist of the Weizmann Institute took a deep breath and turned on the secret switch on the back of the Hitler. The Hitler blinked. And blinked...
Another Love Story
Uzi Weil
11 min
The Ransom of Red Chief
USA
It looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you. We were down South, In Alabama—Bill Driscoll and myself—when this kidnapping idea struck us. It was, as Bill afterward expressed it, “during a moment...
The Ransom of Red Chief
O. Henry
16 min
Pending Vegan
USA
Paul Espeseth, who was no longer taking the antidepressant Celexa, braced himself for a cataclysm at SeaWorld. He wondered only what form cataclysm would take. Espeseth had tried to veto this trip, making his case to...
Pending Vegan
Jonathan Lethem
19 min
Poverty | The Galosh
Russia
Poverty   Brothers, what is the most fashionable word these days, eh? These days the most fashionable word around is, of course, “electrification”. I don’t deny the vast importance of shining a light on Soviet Russia....
Poverty | The Galosh
Mikhail Zoshchenko
6 min
What’s Wrong, Honey?
Spain
The incident with my wife occurred during an excursion into the jungle. It was an overwhelmingly green afternoon, the kind of thing you boast about to your guests. (“The sun that evening was incredible, wasn’t it?...
What’s Wrong, Honey?
Matías Candeira
5 min
A Modest Proposal
Ireland
For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick.   It is a melancholy object to those, who walk...
A Modest Proposal
Jonathan Swift
10 min
The Forbidden Doors
Mexico
Tusnesdor arrives at the hotel at night after a ten-hour transatlantic flight. It’s hot in his room, even though the air conditioner is turned up as high as it will go, and Tusnesdor regrets not having...
The Forbidden Doors
Fabio Morábito
13 min
You’re Laughing
Italy
Shaken by his wife with an angry tug on the arm, jolted out of his sleep again that night, was poor Mister Anselmo. “You’re laughing!” Dazed, and with his nose still stuffy from sleep, and wheezing...
You’re Laughing
Luigi Pirandello
9 min
The Japanese Garden
Spain
When I was nine years old, my father hired me a whore. A whore, logically, who was nine years old. I have forgotten the clothes, the toys, the food, everything that was my life at nine...
The Japanese Garden
Antonio Ortuño
6 min
The Tobacco Man
Argentina
A court in Edmonton, in the Province of Alberta, Canada, has found the Southern Tobacco Company guilty of the charges presented against it by Joshua Lynn and has ordered the company to pay compensation of two...
The Tobacco Man
Diego Vecchio
9 min
Father Christmas Spends the Night
Argentina
The Christmas that Father Christmas came to spend the night at my house was the last time we were all together. After that night Mummy and Daddy stopped fighting, but I don’t think Father Christmas had...
Father Christmas Spends the Night
Samanta Schweblin
7 min
The Woman Who Wouldn’t
Spain
I must be discreet. I don’t want to get her into trouble. I’ll call her… I have a photograph of her in my desk along with a few photographs of other people as well as a...
The Woman Who Wouldn’t
Jorge Ibargüengoitia
9 min
The Northeast Kingdom
USA
He had always believed that his immortality would take the form of the Aerojet. The two-stage, solid-fuel boost rocket had been, in its time, one of the crowning achievements of human technology — the first apparatus to...
The Northeast Kingdom
Nathaniel Rich
41 min
The Extra
Russia
Ilya Ilych was injured. It happened in the evening, in the third act. Dressed in braided crimson livery, white stockings and shoes with buckles, Ilya Ilych was to go out on stage to hand the ballerinas...
The Extra
Anatoly Kuznetsov
34 min
Notes from the Municipal Archives
Israel
In 1999, my father moved into a studio apartment with sea views in the Colony Beach Apartment Motel, Bat Yam promenade. He did this to get away from the distractions in his Ramat Aviv neighbourhood and dedicate himself...
Notes from the Municipal Archives
Yonathan Raz Portugali
16 min
Light and Space
UK
The object is a pillar of resin, 10 feet in height, four feet in diameter. It is glossy enough that if the light is at your back, you can see your reflection, but also translucent enough...
Light and Space
Ned Beauman
12 min
No News, or What Killed the Dog?
USA
It was a day of holocausts, cataclysms, tornadoes, earthquakes, blackouts, mass murders, eruptions, and miscellaneous dooms, at the peak of which the sun swallowed the earth and the stars vanished. But to put it simply, the...
No News, or What Killed the Dog?
Ray Bradbury
9 min
The Envious Hairdresser
Norway
For many years, Bent had had his hair cut by Frank, in Frank’s Salon. From the age of 29, when he settled down in this part of the city, he had gone there, the last Friday...
The Envious Hairdresser
Lars Saabye Christensen
23 min
Outrage
Mexico
 Why do I want a life without honor if I already bet everything I had? A. Esparza Oteo   A highway can be like the high seas. The sun burning on your face, the fresh cleansing...
Outrage
Álvaro Enrigue
16 min
Esme
UK
“All hunting stories are the same,” said Clovis; “just as all Turf stories are the same, and all–” “My hunting story isn’t a bit like any you’ve ever heard,” said the Baroness. “It happened quite a...
Esme
Saki
6 min
Masculinity
Spain
The first thing that Paz asked me to do after we got married was to stop spending all my money on alcohol and records. My main duty was to pay the rent and make sure that...
Masculinity
Antonio Ortuño
4 min
True Friendship
Mexico
Para D.G.E.   “You may still think true friendship is a lie. But then, you’ve never met Bill Burton,” was a phrase often repeated by Samuel Weinstein. Indeed, you could consider it his motto. He would...
True Friendship
Jorge F. Hernández
9 min
A Manual for Cleaning Women
USA
42–PIEDMONT. Slow bus to Jack London Square. Maids and old ladies. I sat next to an old blind woman who was reading Braille, her finger gliding across the page, slow and quiet, line after line. It...
A Manual for Cleaning Women
Lucia Berlin
14 min
The Spider in the Jar
Canada
After collecting the beer bottles from the bunkhouses at the sawmill, the brothers headed into the forest behind their house to eat wild blackberries, until their bellies were rotten with them and their fingertips were stained...
The Spider in the Jar
Théodora Armstrong
5 min
The Letter
Israel
The letter that was sent to my uncle came back unopened and someone added a word in blue ink on the envelope: “deceased.” My uncle was an old man. He lived with my aunt in the...
The Letter
Yossel Birstein
11 min
Summer in Samarkand
USA
When I try to remember how I ended up spending an entire summer in Samarkand, I am reminded of an anecdote about the folk hero Nasreddin Hoca. Walking along a deserted road one night, the story...
Summer in Samarkand
Elif Batuman
25 min
From the Diary of Sherlock Holmes
UK
Baker Street, January 1 Starting a diary in order to jot down a few useful incidents which will be of no use to Watson. Watson very often fails to see that an unsuccessful case is more...
From the Diary of Sherlock Holmes
Maurice Baring
5 min
An Unexpected Bender | The Cashier
Russia
An Unexpected Bender One day Antonina Alekseevna struck her husband with a rubber stamp and smeared his forehead with ink. The deeply offended Pyotr Leonidovich, Antonina Alekseevna’s husband, locked himself in the bathroom and wouldn’t let...
An Unexpected Bender | The Cashier
Daniil Kharms
5 min
An Article of Faith
Mexico
When we board a plane, we tend to smile without really knowing why. The prospect of tempting fate makes us superstitious: we don’t smile out of joy but to ward off adversity. These were my thoughts...
An Article of Faith
Juan Villoro
4 min
Dance of the Swans
Israel
We arranged to meet at the Bagration Underground station and walk to Gorbushka to see a Siberian punk band. Gromov explained how I would recognize him: “I wear glasses, the bridge is held together by wire....
Dance of the Swans
Alice Bialsky
11 min
The Origin of Species
Russia
The hatch slammed shut above his head, muffling the voices of the men up on deck, and Charles Darwin cautiously went below deck. He held the railing, polished by many palms, with one hand and a...
The Origin of Species
Viktor Pelevin
18 min
1/3 1/3 1/3
USA
It was all to be done in thirds. I was to get 1/3 for doing the typing, and she was to get 1/3 for doing the editing, and he was to get 1/3 for writing the...
1/3 1/3 1/3
Richard Brautigan
6 min
Roy Spivey
USA
Traveling with a movie star   Twice I have sat next to a famous man on an airplane. The first man was Jason Kidd, of the New Jersey Nets. I asked him why he didn’t fly...
Roy Spivey
Miranda July
11 min
Quadraturin
Russia
From outside there came a soft knock at the door: once. Pause. And again—a bit louder and bonier: twice. Sutulin, without rising from his bed, extended—as was his wont—a foot toward the knock, threaded a toe...
Quadraturin
Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
10 min
What You Looking at?
Israel
The light has turned green and my son shows no sign that he wants to cross the street. He won’t budge from the traffic island, his eyes squinting against the lashing sun, his hands on his...
What You Looking at?
Tamar Merin
8 min
The Last Words of Benito Picone
USA
It began in a hailstorm in 1975 when Benito Picone trotted across Market Street with his briefcase gripped overhead, shielding him both from the falling sky and, inadvertently, the oncoming Buick. His legs buckled on the...
The Last Words of Benito Picone
Anthony Marra
16 min
The Pajamas
Serbia
The years have taken their toll: I wake up at night more often, and then, bereft of sleep, I go to the bathroom, perch on the bathtub, and stare at my reflection in the mirror. I...
The Pajamas
David Albahari
6 min
A Novel in Nine Letters
Russia
I (From Pyotr Ivanitch To Ivan Petrovitch) Dear Sir and Most Precious Friend, Ivan Petrovitch, For the last two days I have been, I may say, in pursuit of you, my friend, having to talk over...
A Novel in Nine Letters
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
14 min
My Parents and My Children
Argentina
“Where are your parents’ clothes?” Marga asks. She crosses her arms and waits for me to answer. She knows that I don’t know and that I need her to ask another question. On the other side...
My Parents and My Children
Samanta Schweblin
6 min
Bullet in the Brain
USA
Anders couldn’t get to the bank until just before it closed, so of course the line was endless and he got stuck behind two women whose loud, stupid conversation put him in a murderous temper. He...
Bullet in the Brain
Tobias Wolff
7 min
The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls
France
In Montmartre, on the fourth floor of number 75b Rue Orchampt, there once lived a fine fellow named Dutilleul who had the remarkable gift of being able to pass through walls with perfect ease. He wore...
The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls
Marcel Aymé
15 min
The Islands
Spain
To Narciso, protector of shipwrecks   The kids insisted on buying an inflatable float on our way to the beach. They chose the biggest one, a yellow circle with some rocks and a crab in relief....
The Islands
Marina Perezagua
9 min
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