English
0 min 70 min
The Spirit of Madame de Genlis (A Spiritualistic Occurrence)
Russia
“It is sometimes much easier to call up a spirit than to get rid of it.” – A. B. CALMET   I The strange adventure I intend to tell took place several years ago, and can now...
The Spirit of Madame de Genlis (A Spiritualistic Occurrence)
Nikolai Leskov
17 min
Nowhere Else
Germany
Holger’s parents had already gone to bed. The taste of unfamiliar toothpaste on my tongue, I was sitting on the duvet in my pyjamas. Holger was standing by the aquarium and feeding the guppies. ‘Oh no,...
Nowhere Else
Matthias Brandt
14 min
An Episode in the Life of Marshal de Bassompierre
Austria
At a certain point in my life, my services entailed crossing the little bridge across the Seine (for the Pont Neuf was not yet built at that time) at a certain hour several times a week,...
An Episode in the Life of Marshal de Bassompierre
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
11 min
Milkface
Germany
It was a Wednesday and time for my milk bath. But the light white liquid in angular packs – sucked from udders in farmyards, purloined from bovines, diversely digested from greenest grasses for calves, stirred and...
Milkface
Jan Snela
6 min
It’s Me
Germany
The Sankt Johannesweide Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic encompasses spacious grounds. Patients have access to this Lower Bavarian gem among mental institutions from seven in the morning until six in the evening, five days a week. For the...
It’s Me
Kristina Schilke
9 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
Some Terpsichore
USA
There’s a handsaw hanging on the wall of my living room, a house key from a giant’s pocket. It’s been there a long time. “What’s your saw for?” people ask, and I say, “It’s not my...
Some Terpsichore
Elizabeth McCracken
18 min
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
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
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
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 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
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