This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of Hungarian author Miklós Vámos’s most successful work, Apák könyve (2000; The Book of Fathers, 2006). In this essay from the twentieth-anniversary edition of the novel, Vámos touche
August 06, 2025
“But they weren’t fascists, / were they? Those children / of Dresden. Chalk bones / and ash sifting air inside / skeleton frames, black / smoldering sentinels rising / from firebombed buildings / in Dresden. . .”
In the hope of enlightening readers, Yousef Khanfar’s “My Gaza Bookshelf” presents 33 books about Gaza and Gazans during a time of war.
“Children jumping between the tents draw my attention. They have something resembling happiness about them—like they’re dancing to drums only they can hear”
A writer living in Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza faces great loss with no way to say goodbye.
“I heard the earth whisper to the tree / whose branch had been snapped by the wind: / a stronger bud will grow, you’ll see, / in place of your missing limb,” from “In This Dream,” by Sahar Rabah (trans. Wiam El-Tamami)
“Dreaming of a clear sky, unmarred by airplanes. / Of clouds observing their own reflection in the windows’ tears. / An innocent day: no news of dead friends in the mail,” from “Dreaming of a Clear Sky,” by Nasser Rabah (trans. Wiam El-Tamami)
“A moment ago I was screaming under ash and rubble — / A final missile sent me vaulting up your way / and now I’ll inform you of what you’re incapable of / understanding!,” from “To That Final Missile, My Thanks,” by Hend Jouda (trans. Ali Al-Jamri)
Beach Penguins
Photo by Dav
Misfire
A Russian police officer tracks the surprising release of a prisoner to fight in the war against Ukraine. Recalling the prisoner’s capture, the officer regrets his gun’s misfire. Or was it?
A Cough
In this flash fiction from Argentina, a woman with a long list of symptoms empties herself during a medical exam.
Myth lives on in Central Asia, but it has changed shape. Through multimedia projects, audiences become participants in rituals rather than mere participants, and multimedia artists create myth anew.
As Nettel’s principal English-language translator, Harvey shared insights from her translation of Nettel’s work, including how ambiguity makes readers active agents in meaning creation and the feature of doubling—of one thing containing, if you look closely and courageously enough, something else.
In his plea for the planet, in which “humans understand themselves as a harmonious part of the Earth, neither more nor less than other animals, plants, and rocks,” Spanish writer Ernesto Pérez Zúñiga advocates a new geo-humanism that restores nature to the center.
Traversing the Human/Simian Divide: A Conversation with Prateek Vats
A conversation with Prateek Vats, whose film Eeb Allay Ooo! is part of an emergent oeuvre of multispecies cinema from India.
Punishment Without Crime: A Conversation with Laila Lalami
A conversation between Emily Doyle and Laila Lalami, whose The Dream Hotel, takes a harrowing look at data-driven surveillance.
Doubt and Interpretation in Someone Like Us: A Conversation with Dinaw Mengestu
An interview with Dinaw Mengestu, whose latest novel Someone Like Us, is both “mystery and meditation” that “challenges [the] dominant narrative with a multiplicity of stories.”
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