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The Translator I Never Wanted to Be
USA
Eight or nine years ago – I think it was summer 2012 – I found myself browsing the shelves at a bookstore in Tehran. Outposts of the local bookstore chain Shahr-e Ketab glitter like branches of...
The Translator I Never Wanted to Be
Mariam Rahmani
13 min
A Clean Marriage
Japan
My husband emerged from the bedroom, woken by the beeps at the end of the washing-machine cycle. ‘Morning . . . Sorry I overslept. Shall I take over?’ The weekend laundry was his job, but since...
A Clean Marriage
Sayaka Murata
20 min
Dogs of Summer
Spain
On the Night of San Juan, Nana built a gigantic fire. She built it in the middle of the garden, and it was several metres tall. On the Night of San Juan, you couldn’t breathe for...
Dogs of Summer
Andrea Abreu
12 min
Two Women
Denmark
When Britta was depressed, nervous, and restless like this, so not even a complete reorganization of all the furniture in the house, or the preparation of a complicated dinner, could help her, there were only two...
Two Women
Tove Ditlevsen
7 min
She’s not quite woman’s best friend
USA
When I came back to Tucson for Christmas break, my mom was like, “You need to clean out your closet or you’re not going anywhere.” This was her way of being dumb about the fact that...
She’s not quite woman’s best friend
KILEY REID
10 min
A Child
Slovakia
She had been married for five years – and still nothing. Her relatives felt pity and compassion for her; it was not usual for women to be barren in her large family, where children had always...
A Child
Erika Olahová
5 min
A Girl in the Café
Israel
To Tami Berger In the corner café that had recently changed owners stood a parrot’s cage. A green cage with a domed top, a swing fixed inside it, and a slot and small drawer at the...
A Girl in the Café
Ronit Matalon
30 min
Like Penelope
Russia
 Here once lived a girl who was beloved by her mother but no one else. The girl was used to it and didn’t get too upset. Her name was Oksana – a glamorous, fashionable name —...
Like Penelope
Lyudmila Petrushevskaya
16 min
A Black Dancer in a One-person Dance Company
Israel
While I was waiting for Eriksson, I decided to get rid of all my meds. I packed them in clear garbage bags and went downstairs to the trashcan, my hands full of Lomotil, Hismanal, Diazepam, Ampicillin,...
A Black Dancer in a One-person Dance Company
Esty G. Haim
14 min
Being Frosya Shneerson (Chapter 6)
Israel
When everything in the house is upside down and all mixed up, it means only one thing: we’ve got company. It doesn’t matter how many guests there are — one or thirty-one — before their arrival,...
Being Frosya Shneerson (Chapter 6)
Tasha Karluka
8 min
Emily Of New Moon – Chapter 5
Canada
Diamond Cut Diamond EMILY, who had been pointedly ignored by the Murrays at breakfast, was called into the parlour when the meal was over. They were all there—the whole phalanx of them—and it occurred to Emily...
Emily Of New Moon – Chapter 5
Lucy Maud Montgomery
10 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
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
Emily of New Moon
Canada
Chapter I The House in the Hollow The house in the hollow was “a mile from anywhere”—so Maywood people said. It was situated in a grassy little dale, looking as if it had never been built...
Emily of New Moon
Lucy Maud Montgomery
10 min
Emily of New Moon – Chapter 2
Canada
A Watch in the Night Emily stood quite still and looked up at Ellen’s broad, red face–as still as if she had been suddenly turned to stone. She felt as if she had. She was as...
Emily of New Moon – Chapter 2
Lucy Maud Montgomery
15 min
Emily of New Moon – Chapter 3
Canada
A Hop Out of Kin Douglas Starr lived two weeks more. In after years when the pain had gone out of their recollection, Emily thought they were the most precious of her memories. They were beautiful...
Emily of New Moon – Chapter 3
Lucy Maud Montgomery
17 min
Emily from New Moon – Chapter 4
Canada
A Family Conclave EMILY wakened at daylight the next morning. Through her low, uncurtained window the splendour of the sunrise was coming in, and one faint, white star was still lingering in the crystal-green sky over...
Emily from New Moon – Chapter 4
Lucy Maud Montgomery
13 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
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
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
Bringing Back Snow
Israel
One morning, they woke up and the cat wasn’t there. He wasn’t sprawled on the couch, as he usually was, gleaming white against the faded gray of the living room. He had not infiltrated his way...
Bringing Back Snow
Riky Cohen
6 min
What We’ve Become
Spain
I remember it was almost summer, and I called from my office, between patients, to make the appointment. Paz had recommended a beauty salon that happened to be near my parents’ house. I made an appointment...
What We’ve Become
Margarita Leoz
14 min
Nam
Spain
She’s getting naked. Something either very bad or very good is happening. Happening to me. Whatever it is, my parents can’t find out. I’m at a friend’s house. Nothing strange there. But my new friend, half...
Gabe
USA
Tommy’s cousin Gabe. Tommy’s distant cousin Gabe from Stillwater, Minnesota. Tommy’s cousin Gabe, related to my husband through divorce and remarriage, in lieu of actual blood, who arrives on my front porch at dinnertime with a...
Gabe
Holiday Reinhorn
7 min

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