English
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The Beretta Always Wins (A chapter from a novel)
Tunisia
The smell was stuck in my nose and wouldn’t go. Whenever I drew air into my lungs, the smell took over, and all the torture I went through that night came rushing back. Before emailing the...
The Beretta Always Wins (A chapter from a novel)
Kamal Riahi
4 min
The Fisherman and His Soul
UK
Every evening the young Fisherman went out upon the sea, and threw his nets into the water.      When the wind blew from the land he caught nothing, or but little at best, for it was...
The Fisherman and His Soul
Oscar Wilde
55 min
THE ANGLE
Spain
Julia knocked on his door for the third time, looked through the keyhole without managing to see anything, and strode moodily up and down the roof terrace. She now realised that she should have done something...
THE ANGLE
Cristina Fernández Cubas
15 min
One of Them
Tunisia
Emerging from his plastic cave awash in filth, Crow “J” toddled unsteadily over to the paved road with sullen, terse gasps. The radiant disk was rising from the mouth of the earth as he advanced through...
One of Them
Aziz Jamal Yahyawi
2 min
Reverse Bug
USA
“Let’s get the announcements out of the way,” said Ilka, the teacher, to her foreigners in Conversational English for Adults. “Tomorrow evening the institute is holding a symposium. Ahmed,” she asked the Turkish student with the...
Reverse Bug
Lore Segal
14 min
The Cheapest Nights
Egypt
After the evening prayer, curses came streaming out of Abdel Karim’s mouth, striking the village fathers and mothers and taking in Tantawi and his forebears on the way. The story was that Abdel Karim had hardly...
The Cheapest Nights
Yusuf Idris
6 min
The Detective
Sudan
The vet gave a smile so meek and mild it was scary. “I’ve given the dog a sedative,” he said to Mrs Nahal. “He’ll calm down in ten minutes at most.” “Good job,” she replied. “The...
The Detective
Yasin Suleiman
9 min
The Garden Window
Spain
The first note the Alberts’ son furtively slipped into my pocket looked like a cryptic puzzle. The words were written in concentric circles and this is what they said: Angry casserole, Smuts or minks. Crosses or...
The Garden Window
Cristina Fernández Cubas
21 min
Vampire
Spain
It was the talk of the town. What a miracle! It’s not every day that a man in his eighties goes to the altar with a fifteen year old. To be precise, Inesiña, the niece of...
Vampire
Emilia Pardo Bazán
6 min
Broca’s Area
Sudan
In front of me, I put a ream of white paper, a copper inkwell and a feather I snatched from my neighbour’s duck. I lit a candle and stuck it in the middle of the table....
Broca’s Area
Mohamed Hassan AL-Nahat
8 min
And Then — Nina Simone Began to Sing
Israel
This city — this city is so fucking expensive that I can’t bear it. And it’s so fabulous that sometimes I can’t bear it. Expensive and horrible — that would be better. To enjoy it, you...
And Then — Nina Simone Began to Sing
Tasha Karluka
4 min
Getting Ahead
Sweden
Sometime in June, my back started to itch. I thought I’d been bitten by a mosquito or some other insect. That’s how it felt. It was always worst when I’d been out running and worked up...
Getting Ahead
Jonas Karlsson
31 min
A Grainless Mill
Tunisia
“I haven’t written a word for a year (…) I’ve tried to write. Every day I sit at the typewriter, but I can’t get started.” – J.D Salinger “What’s a director if he can’t engage in...
A Grainless Mill
Ziad Abd el-Qadir
6 min
A Prison Out of the Movies
Mexico
The transfer began at two in the morning, while a northerly wind blustered furiously outside. Some of the prisoners didn’t even have time to dress before the Federal agents burst into their cells. Shoving and kicking,...
A Prison Out of the Movies
Fernanda Melchor
5 min
Romance with a Double Bass
Russia
The musician Bowzinsky was walking from town to the country house of Prince Bibulov, where an evening of music and dance was to “take place,” as they say, for an engagement party. On his back was...
Romance with a Double Bass
Anton Chekhov
6 min
Spume on the Sands of Acre
Palestine
Here, people are only observed by the eyes of the night watch. The walls of Acre have not yet been completely built. Nor its lighthouse that looks over the sea to the west. The stones are...
Spume on the Sands of Acre
Wisam Gibran
3 min
The Opportunity
Israel
He played his role well. He showed no sign that he knew what was going on behind his back. He could be truly satisfied with himself. And when Bennet and Yossi Cohen told him why they...
The Opportunity
Iftach Alony
15 min
The Woman in Green
Spain
‘I’m sorry,’ says the girl. ‘You’re mistaken.’ I listen to her without batting an eyelid, nodding my head as if being mistaken were the most natural thing in the world. Because there’s no other explanation. I’ve...
The Woman in Green
Cristina Fernández Cubas
24 min
The Smuggler
Israel
“The invention of the soul allows us to conceive of the body as a parasite. Hands can be objects that are devoid of feeling during the day but soft and tender at night. These actions do...
The Smuggler
Iftach Alony
7 min
It Will All Be Over by Next Rosh Hashanah
Israel
An old woman cleans my house. She sends the money she earns to her children and grandchildren – maybe her great-grandchildren too. They all live in a nice house in some evergreen part of Europe, by...
It Will All Be Over by Next Rosh Hashanah
Vered Singer
8 min
The Battle of Tel el-Hawa
Palestine
“It was a pitched battle…” – a description he had often read out to his classmates from history textbooks but never thought he would one day use as he had just done, speaking to his friend,...
The Battle of Tel el-Hawa
Asmaa al-Ghoul
8 min
The Nightmare (a chapter from a novel)
Gaza
I grew up suddenly like a tree. Once I had a dream when I was five years old. This dream visited me again. I slept for ten minutes that night. It was hard. The medicine that...
The Nightmare (a chapter from a novel)
Abdalhadi Alijla
7 min
Everyone’s Favourite Blonde
Mexico
“Evangelina Segunda, you have the beauty of Artemis: Venus herself fiercely envies the innocence of your smile” Sunday Magazine, Issue 54, El Dictamen (13 February, 1983)   The centre of Veracruz is full of ghosts, my...
Everyone’s Favourite Blonde
Fernanda Melchor
8 min
Madame Bovary from Neveh Tsedek
Israel
Like at other periods of metaphysical ardor, at this time too, the body (that of a woman, to be sure) wasn’t taken very seriously.  This may be why even the dockworkers in the port that day...
Madame Bovary from Neveh Tsedek
Nurit Zarchi
10 min
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