“I don’t understand,” she said, gazing discontentedly around the churchyard, “why we always want to hold on to everything, regardless. We don’t even let our dead go, for God’s sake.” I said nothing, I who had spent a long year trying to hold on to the living, and failing badly. I had an urn full […]
My mother could do it from the Rorschach of tea-leaves, or from the metropolitan map of your palm, or from knots tied on a piece of string. She’d do it from the tiny flecks of colour on the edges of your iris, clamping you between her work-roughened hands and craning her head back, narrowing her […]
Furioso, el mar brama desgarrando las velas del San Cristóbal. Reclama con rugidos de espuma, grita como una mujer parturienta, llora cual niño abandonado . . . Esas fueron las palabras que alcancé a reconocer entre los últimos balbuceos dementes de un mozuelo morisco quien, con los ojos desorbitados, se arrojó por la borda durante la tempestad que […]
(traducido por David Bowles) Cuando las paredes son delgadas, cada vecino es un criminal y un asesino. Las sirenas de policía aúllan todas las noches, entre las doce y las tres de la mañana. Esta cacofonía nocturna genera especulaciones. ¿A quién le irán a robar ahora? ¿A quién lo irán a matar? Cada noche, te […]
Qué dolor que el planeta entero acabe violentamente justo a las siete de la mañana cuando todo el mundo se ha despertado y sale a trabajar. Qué lástima que las noticias apenas logren hablar de la inquietud anunciada mundialmente por expertos y autoridades y casi nadie en la calle les haga caso y nadie entienda […]
(traducido por David Bowles) Enterramos a los primeros con formalidad y reverencia. Ahora suena tonto, pero ¿qué podíamos hacer? Después de todo aún eran nuestros hijos. Hasta vestí bonita a mi Sarah para la ocasión; le puse su mejor ropa dominguera, un vestido amarillo de algodón que brillaba contra el marrón oscuro de su piel, […]
It hadn’t rained in close to seven weeks the night I met you. The rain-barrels were down to the last silty dregs, the skies stubborn in their pale blue clarity. I wasn’t even certain the car would start; it chugged to life on the third attempt, emitting a choked gurgle like a throat full of […]
There wasn’t much for us boys of that little fishing village to do but fish. Wake, fish, eat, fish, sleep, fish, rinse and repeat. It was one endless cycle of sea-worn canoes and heavy nets and stinking fish. But it was the life we were used to, and we were content with it; we knew […]
Lisa is in the passenger seat and we are somehow, inevitably, on our way to Leyford. She stabs the stop button on the tape deck, grinds her cigarette into my pristine ashtray and lets rip as the London streets become motorway. “What is it about music by dead guys? Why do we obsess about people […]
The plan was this: resign from work, fly to Vegas on her tourist visa, stay with family, and wait for an H1B sponsor to hire her. “And how’s that working out for you?” Alejandra asked. “Well, I’m here, aren’t I?” Ruby said. “So not good.” She sighed. “I’ve been applying to jobs online for months […]
