My Father’s House

Bernardine Evaristo tours her childhood home

Dark Man at the Airport

The troubling post-9/11 passport of Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

How The Light Gets In

Niña Weijers on why writing is such a curious business.

Reportage

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Invisible Books

Thomas Heerma van Voss on independent publishing. Translated from the Dutch by Alice Tetley-Paul
I still get asked about it on the odd occasion. By the handful of people who saw me selling books at the Small Publishers’ Fair. By peers who’ve found informati... Read more
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In Chernobyl

Svetlana Alexievich listens to the sound of distant radiation
Svetlana Alexievich’s Chernobyl Prayer first appeared in 1997, eleven years after a series of explosions rocked the Chernobyl reactor in the middle of the night... Read more
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On Manic Depression

For Jay Griffiths, manic depression causes an incandescent sensitivity. ‘My nerves are exposed,’ she writes, ‘the world is ferociously present.’
For Jay Griffiths, manic depression causes an incandescent sensitivity. ‘My nerves are exposed,’ she writes, ‘the world is ferociously present.’
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Against Elections

When it comes to democracy, have we lost our way? By David Van Reybrouck
Why do we hold elections? Why do governments in the west export elections to other parts of the world? Is this process of choosing a politician’s name from a ballot effective, or have we forgotten why this practice arose in the first place?
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All Tyranny Must End One Day

What is it like to vote in Serbia? Bojana Gajski recounts her history
In my little Serbian hometown, streets are mostly named after poets and Second World War heroes. The street where I lived and where my parents still live was na... Read more
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An Incomplete Guide To Obscenity

Arundhati Roy’s Field Notes from India
This is in the nature of an Open F.I.R. (First Information Report), a technique borrowed from the Indian Police. (It’s true what the agony uncles say, there’s some good in everyone.) An Open F.I.R. is a Work in Progress, which allows the police to ke... Read more
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The Fight for Broken Britain

Dan Hancox travels to the Eastern Front
For a place teeming with the ghosts of empire, hard labour, hard liquor, sailors and prostitutes, it’s almost unbearably tranquil. This Britain isn’t broken: it’s just quiet to the point of being unsettling.
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Transient Beauty

by Madeleine Thien
In Montreal, it is the women I always notice first. They are lithe, bold and astonishingly lovely. On the bicycle path, girls in tiny skirts float by, long hair... Read more
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‘Censorship has now moved into the hands of the people’

Matt McKinnon speaks to N.W.A. manager Jerry Heller
Jerry Heller broke into the music industry in 1966, representing artists for a mobbed-up booking agency in Los Angeles. Heller went on to act for stars like Marvin Gaye and Van Morrison; he booked Elton John and Pink Floyd’s first American tours. In ... Read more