Two Spooky Tales by Max Porter and Kamila Shamsie
From Eight Ghosts: The English Heritage Book of New Ghost Stories
"'I don’t believe in ghosts,’ Khalid said, his first day on the job as a security guard at Kenilworth Castle."
Home Archive by category Excerpts (Page 83)
Excerpts
“Dreamt In Stone”
Jon Fosse, Trans. Damion Searls
"No one saw the avalanche because it all fell apart so slowly, not day by day, not even hour by hour, not minute by minute, but it fell apart, it was falling apart the whole time and you could see, if you wanted to see it, if you didn’t refuse to see it, you could see it falling apart because it was an avalanche, it had to be an avalanche because what else could it be?"
The Waiter
Matias Faldbakken, trans. Alice Menzies
"Every morning regularity and service act as a bulwark against inner noise. I work as much as I can. My days might seem endless, but that’s how I want them. "
Everything Under
Daisy Johnson
"It had been sixteen years since I last saw you, as I was getting on that bus. At the start of the summer the potholes in the track up to the cottage filled with frogspawn but it was nearly halfway through August and nothing much grew there any more. This place was a boat in another life."
“Zimmer Land”
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
"Welcome to Zimmer Land,” Lady Justice says. I flash my ID badge at Mariam. She frowns at me from her chair in the front box office."
“Who We Are”
Camille Acker
"We walk down the halls like we are coming to beat you up. Even the teachers move out of the way."
Listen to the Marriage
John Jay Osborn
“And somehow Steve came to your attention,” Sandy said. “Why?” Gretchen looked at the ceiling for a moment, and then back at Sandy. “There were only twelve students in the class, you pretty much notice everyone,” she said evenly.
“Rampion”
Anita Felicelli
"It was early spring in Paris and our yearlong efforts to get pregnant had failed. The fertility clinic tested Connall and the problem wasn't his sperm, so that left me to measure my basal temperature, take pills, inject myself, explore homeopathic cures."
Unsheltered
Barbara Kingsolver
"Willa spent a restless hour walking around the empty third floor trying to choose a room for her office."
One Part Woman
Perumal Murugan, Trans. Aniruddhan Vasudevan
"In the matter of offering prayers, Kali and Ponna left no stone unturned. They did not discriminate between small and big temples. They promised an offering to every god they encountered."
“The Saddest Case of True Love”
Simon Van Booy
"Last week I received a postcard from Italy. At first I thought it was a mistake. The message was short but very personal. The sender’s father had “died peacefully” at a care facility in Seoul. The postcard was signed in black ink with a name I didn’t immediately recognize."
In Your Hands
Inês Pedrosa, Trans. Andrea Rosenberg
"Every night of my life I thanked God for the gift of that ever-unchanging emotion. Many marriages collapsed, others swiftly decayed, swept up in the frenetic music of an increasingly troubled era, but ours remained pure, floating above the world’s tribulations."
Love Is Blind
William Boyd
"Brodie Moncur stood in the main window of Channon & Co. and looked out at the hurrying pedestrians, the cabs, carriages and labouring drays of George Street."
Bitter Orange
Claire Fuller
"They must think I don’t have long left because today they allow the vicar in. Perhaps they are right, although this day feels no different from yesterday, and I imagine tomorrow will go on much the same."
Samuel Johnson’s Eternal Return
Martin Riker
"What happened next happened quickly, and in my shock and emotional confusion, I took for granted that everything passing before my eyes was part of the standard procedure for a soul departing this world. I failed to wonder, as I sailed over the forest floor, why my flight was horizontal rather than vertical, or why I seemed to be headed into town rather than in a more heavenly direction."
Weather Woman
Cai Emmons
"At Odiorne Point State Park the sight of the ocean is immediately tranquilizing. She loves the sand, the cool trembling water, the ranting gulls, the waves’ susurrus. The ocean holds onto an untouchable wildness that the rest of the world is losing."
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