The One-In-A-Million Boy
He said, softly enough that she might not catch it, “I was a rotten father.” Ona nodded, noncommittal. “There are worse things.” “Like what?” He really wanted to know. “Being an adequate mother.” She took a swig from her coffee mug. “Rotten fathers are a dime a dozen, who even notices? Whatever kind you were—and […]
Before the Fall
Life is a series of decisions and reactions. It is the things you do and the things that are done to you. And then it’s over. —Noah Hawley
News of the World
Maybe life is just carrying news. Surviving to carry the news. Maybe we have just one message, and it is delivered to us when we are born and we are never sure what it says; it may have nothing to do with us personally but it must be carried by hand through a life, all […]
The Summer That Melted Everything
Dad was telling every one of them to get out of our house. I’d never seen my father so angry. Years later, I would find myself dog-earing a page in a book about the ocean. On the page a painting of gray, wild waves. I have since torn that page out of the book and […]
A Gentleman in Moscow
Presumably, the bells of the Church of the Ascension had been reclaimed by the Bolsheviks for the manufacture of artillery, thus returning them to the realm from whence they came. Though for all the Count knew, the cannons that had been salvaged from Napoleon’s retreat to make the Ascension’s bells had been forged by the […]
Moonglow
He cut the engine. The clack of sprinklers filled the car. The wide empty lawns were veiled in shifting iridescence. One of the rivulets in the flow of his imaginings that morning had been the sight of my grandmother rising to her feet on the topmost step of the main building, in the belted navy […]
Version Control
…history lives in the gap between the information and the truth. And each of us has no choice but to determine our own history, for ourselves. —Dexter Palmer
Grief is the Thing With Feathers
Moving on, as a concept, is for stupid people, because any sensible person knows grief is a long-term project. I refuse to rush. The pain that is thrust upon us let no man slow or speed or fix. —Max Porter
Homegoing
As Sonny passed the projects that filled the distance between his apartment and Willie’s, he tried to remember the last time he’d really spoken to his mother. It was 1964, during the riots, and she had asked him to meet her in front of her church so that she could lend him some money. “I […]
Epsilon Theory Brand Unveiling
Lily and the Octopus
Someone once said give a dog food and shelter and treats and they think you are a god, but give a cat the same and they think they are the god. —Steven Rowley
The North Water
He finds the lying comes easy enough, of course. Words are just noises in a certain order, and he can use them any way he wishes. Pigs grunt, ducks quack, and men tell lies: that is how it generally goes. —Ian McGuire
The Underground Railroad
Was she supposed to pray now? She sat at the table in the thin lamplight. It was too dark on the platform to make out where the tunnel began. How long would it take them to root out Caesar? How fast could he run? She was aware of the bargains people made in desperate situations. […]
Do Not Say We Have Nothing
Beauty leaves its imprints on the mind. Throughout history, there have been many moments that can never be recovered, but you and I know that they existed. —Madeleine Thien
The Mothers
She had witnessed this scene dozens of times before, her husband yelling at Luke. For joyriding with his friends, theater-hopping, sneaking beer onto the beach in old Coke bottles, smoking reefer in Buddy Todd Park, goading Marines into fights. He wasn’t a bad kid but he was reckless. Black boys couldn’t afford to be reckless, […]
In case you haven’t noticed, I’m really, really enjoying Adobe Spark
Testing out #AdobeSpark. pic.twitter.com/NmlXHje9A5 — Ziad (@ziad4pope) October 18, 2016 City of Brotherly Love #AdobeSpark pic.twitter.com/ItkKPWAWsL — Ziad (@ziad4pope) October 18, 2016 It's a fair question. #AdobeSpark https://t.co/VlensWQFpz — Ziad (@ziad4pope) October 18, 2016 Leveraging social touchpoints. #AdobeSpark https://t.co/DZIP8LG9tf — Ziad (@ziad4pope) October 18, 2016 Your mileage may vary. #AdobeSpark https://t.co/aKYeaQz3Lt — Ziad (@ziad4pope) October […]
The Nix
“Your mom is in trouble,” Alice said. “The judge will never yield. He’s ruthless and dangerous. You have to take her away. Do you hear me?” “I don’t understand. What’s his grudge against her?” She sighed and looked at the ground. “He’s like the most dangerous species of American there is: heterosexual white male who […]
A Manual for Cleaning Women
Anybody says he knows just how someone else feels is a fool. —Lucia Berlin
His Bloody Project
I sat down on the bench and watched Flora make her way along the village. She had a way of walking as if her body was singing a song. —Graeme Macrae Burnet
The Girls
Hatred was easy. The permutations constant over the years: a stranger at a fair who palmed my crotch through my shorts. A man on the sidewalk who lunged at me, then laughed when I flinched. The night an older man took me to a fancy restaurant when I wasn’t even old enough to like oysters. […]
