Ways to Hide in Winter
Sarah St. Vincent
"XXX"
Home Archive by category Excerpts (Page 84)
Excerpts
Paradise Rot
Jenny Hval, trans. Maryam Idriss
"There, and not there. Outside the hostel window the town is hidden by fog. The pier down below dissolves into the colourless distance, like a bridge into the clouds. At times the fog disperses a little, and the contours of islands appear a little way out to sea. Then they’re gone again."
The Latecomers
Helen Klein Ross
"That morning, hours after the cock crowed but before the townhall bell chimed eight, Bridey mounted narrow steps leading up from the kitchen, holding tight to the fluted handles of a silver oval on which Mr. Hollingworth’s breakfast quivered."
The Lake on Fire
Rosellen Brown
"For all the years of her life, this was the story Chaya-Libbe told. The missing parts stayed missing."
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."
“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."
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