Something Wild: A Novel by Hanna Halperin (2021)

Part IISTRADDLING NESSA ON THE HOTEL BED, Tanya has not been this physically close to her sister in years, probably since that day in their mother’s bathroom fifteen years ago. When she feels on Nessa’s cheeks that her sister is crying, Tanya pretends that she doesn’t notice. The danger of getting ( Read more... )

Manifesto: On Never Giving Up by Bernardine Evaristo (2022)

One: heritage, childhood, family, origins
Prioritizing education, my parents managed to pay for my oldest brother to attend prep school for a few years. He still recalls the time when his class had to read out loud in turn from the popular racist children’s book The Story of Little Black ( Read more... )

People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo--and the evil that swallowed her up by Richard Lloyd Parry (2012)

Part II: Tokyo
4. High Touch TownRoppongi was not especially trendy. For quality, variety, or good value, Tokyo had many more interesting entertainment districts-elegant Ginza, with its ( Read more... )

Long Live the Post Horn! by Vigdis Hjorth (2013), translated by Charlotte Barslund (2020)As I was putting away in my basement lock-up some saucepans that couldn’t be used with my new induction hob, I came across an old diary from 2000. The diary had been a Christmas present and I had written in it for a few months before I got bored. As I hadn’t ( Read more... )

I Used to Be Charming: The Rest of Eve Babitz by Eve Babitz (2019)

Hippie Heaven In the sixties going to thrift shops and dressing up in the styles of another era became de rigueur: we began recycling the past and using it to bring romance, drama, and “it’s happening” into the room with us. For very little money, girls could wear great clothes of ( Read more... )

I Used to Be Charming: The Rest of Eve Babitz by Eve Babitz (2019)

All This and The Godfather Too 5. THE STREET ( Read more... )

O Beautiful: A Novel by Jung Yun (2021)

Chapter 14Elinor grew up in military housing. On the base in Marlow, families lived in a concrete gray apartment complex where all the living room windows faced a large interior courtyard. Whenever she and Maren followed their mother through the courtyard to go to town or the PX, Elinor felt watched by every ( Read more... )

Other People's Clothes: A Novel by Calla Henkel (2022)

Chapter 2
I had finally built up the courage to bring in one of my assemblage sculptures to the pit. A hulking, piss-stained, most likely bedbug-infested piece of plywood that I’d found on the Bowery. I drilled hundreds of holes in the warped board, and with silver wire I’d carefully threaded ( Read more... )

Vladimir: A Novel by Julia May Jonas (2022)

Chapter IIPeople said this crop of youth was weak, but we knew differently. We knew they were so strong-so much stronger than us, and equipped with better weapons, more effective tactics. They brought us to our knees with their softness, their consistent demand for the consideration of their feelings-the ( Read more... )

Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang (2021)

Chapter 5: SilkMa Ma liked to say that a woman could be beautiful without being pretty, but that a woman could not be beautiful without having dignity. It would take me decades to unravel what that meant (51 ( Read more... )