What aspect of any single day makes for a good story? A rainy day or otherwise? "Foreign papers exaggerate; Stefan’s mother sent him such anxious letters from Berlin! He would write tonight and tell her not to worry. Nothing was as serious as it seemed from the outside. Moreover, his
Recalling the distanced and pseudo-analytical view of a man's life in the very short story "Siegfried's Memoirs", readers can contrast that with "Willi", an emotionally driven and heartful short piece. "Willi was a prisoner of war in France until the end of 1948. He dreamed of home, but when he got
Anosh Irani's "Circus Wedding" appears in the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of Eighteen Bridges, a fabulous magazine. His novel, The Parcel, also considers voices which are often pushed to the margins. Here, too, Raju inhabits a precarious existence. Here too, Anosh Irani takes a small character and reveals their big dreams.
"My name is Renée. I am fifty-four years old. For twenty-seven years I have been the concierge at number 7, rue de Grenelle, a fine hôtel particulier with a courtyard and private gardens, divided into eight luxury apartments …" In Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog, readers cosy up
This season, I took a break from my reading projects and played with the longlists for some of the Canadian literary prizes. Before I'd quite finished, I started in with the next Mavis Gallant short story collection. Still, I might yet finish the three remaining books. Alternatively, they might wait
