Synopses & Reviews
Richard Russo returns home to a hometown on the verge of extinction. Up-and-coming fiction writer
Claire Vaye Watkins explores a damaged car on an abandoned road and a Ziploc bag of pristine letters.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie shows what happens when a married mans old flame threatens to return to Lagos. A young
Iris Murdoch writes devotional letters to the older French Surrealist and Oulipo co-founder Raymond Queneau.
Hal Crowther delivers a blistering critique of the Internets erosion of solitude.
With extracts from Mark Twains never-before published memoir on childhood and Colin Grants highly anticipated memoir Bageye at the Wheel; new poetry from Seamus Heaney, Adrienne Rich, and Nicholas Christopher; and a photographic essay by Ian Teh.
Further works include Elizabeth McCracken's stirring tale of a young widower and the traces we leave behind; Leila Aboulelas story of an aspiring Sudanese academics return to London with his young Muslim wife; foreign correspondent Janine Di Giovannis return to Sarajevo to search for a boy she knew fifteen years ago; Peter Orners examination of the question When does a place become something else? in Chappaquiddick; and Joseph ONeill on the breaking of America.
Synopsis
We're all seduced by the idea of going back. But can we ever trust our memories? We return (or attempt to return) to places, friends, lovers, missed opportunities, and versions of ourselves that no longer exist. Or we're haunted and shaped by the fact that returning--going back--isn't an option. Can we ever trust our memories? In this latest issue of Granta, writers meditate on these essential questions from an exciting array of vantage points. Wendell Steavenson revisits Iraq, where she follows up with the former prisoner of war she interviewed after Saddam's fall. Owen Sheers returns to Zimbabwe and the memories of family who lived there, witnessing how the country has changed in the past decade. The issue will feature new fiction by up-and-coming writer Claire Watkins, a profound essay on Detroit by the poet Lawrence Joseph, a photo essay on Shanghai, and startling memoirs and stories by the best writers from around the world.