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In Her Room

Wang Anyi

‘It would be wrong to say she hasn’t experienced life. Instead, it would be more apt to describe her as someone whom time has slipped by without leaving the slightest trace.’

Fiction by Wang Anyi, translated by Michael Berry.

Images of Women

Elvira Navarro

‘In the years before his stroke, just how many times had her father told a woman he loved her after dating for two or three weeks?’

Fiction by Elvira Navarro, translated by Christina MacSweeney.

International Soul Cultist

Toye Oladinni

‘They started out as fraternities, the cults. Poorer students wanted strong networks, like the ones boarding school pupils had already.’

Fiction by Toye Oladinni.

Ocean Hotpot

Si’an Chen

‘I promise you, the committee only looks at two things: how feasible a proposal is, and what it could actually do for the environment.’

A bureaucrat and an entrepreneur discuss environment-saving proposals in a short play by Si’an Chen, translated by Jeremy Tiang.

Malandrino

Joe Stretch

‘On the doorstep, in the glare of the security lamp, was a thin, bearded man holding a black, breathless terrier.’

Fiction by Joe Stretch.

Export-Import

Karan Mahajan

‘Thanks to what Chetan had published, he and his parents were in trouble, and he was exiled from India.’

Fiction by Karan Mahajan.

The Institute

Maia Siegel

‘The Institute was meeting at Yale, at a corner bar with a pool table and subpar beer. It was only a society at this point, attempting to build itself out.’

Fiction by Maia Siegel.

The Ghost Coat

Catherine Lacey

‘I’d had quite enough of everything. I vowed to no longer mistake obedience for love.’

Fiction by Catherine Lacey.

Pax Domestica

Victor Heringer

‘The whole family: yay. I love my family. (Don’t I.)’

Fiction by Victor Heringer, translated by James Young.

Lin Yan

Cao Kou

‘They rented a room – a standard double, two twin beds with a nightstand between them.’

Fiction by Cao Kou, translated by Canaan Morse.

Working Girls

A. Jiang

‘I tried to work out how many elements I would have plugged if I retired at sixty, and soon I was fatigued before a simple subtraction.’

Fiction by A. Jiang.

Piranhas and Us

Can Xue

‘An enormous black form rose from the water. Uncle Feng told me in a low voice to run fast.’

Fiction by Can Xue, translated by Annelise Finegan.

Speedwell

Zhang Yueran

‘Fiction is a kind of spell, I said, and analysing a story is an exorcism. It loses all its mystery.’

Fiction by Zhang Yueran, translated by Jeremy Tiang.