Granta contributors, friends and staff share what they are reading this summer.
‘We’re fine as we are, he said, what do we need kids for? And then time passed and eventually we couldn’t.’
Fiction by Krisztina Tóth, translated from the Hungarian by Owen Good.
‘When Fosse won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2023, he was often described in the press as a writer of a “minority language”, but just what that meant was often obscure to anyone outside of Norway.’
Damion Searls on translating Jon Fosse and Nynorsk, a minority Norwegian language.
‘Now – on Donald Trump’s eightieth birthday, and to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence – seven cage fights would take place in a temporary arena on the South Lawn of the White House.’
Jordan Castro attends the UFC Freedom 250.
‘The joy of being religious is that you discipline yourself in seeing more deeply than you would otherwise see.’
Merve Emre discusses religion and writing with Marilynne Robinson and Jon Fosse.
Granta 175: Scandinavia
Vaim Hotel
Jon Fosse
‘I was standing outside The Vaim General Store with this fishing set in my hand, and I thought why in the world had I bought myself a fishing rod’
Fiction by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls.
The Good Person of Sandvika
Vigdis Hjorth
‘I was very productive at the pub, working to the hum of other people’s voices.’
Fiction by Vigdis Hjorth, translated by Charlotte Barslund.
The Aviary
Solvej Balle
‘We had discovered Joanna that morning when we went out into the garden. She was lying in her sleeping bag on the grass.’
Fiction by Solvej Balle, translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell.
The High Priestess
Olga Ravn
‘As a child, to the puzzlement of those around me, I developed an interest in tarot cards.’
A new story by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken.
A Strange Bird’s Cry
Karl Ove Knausgård
‘You are born into a family that has run the same farm since the 1600s, and as the eldest son it is not only expected that you will take over from your father, it is a given. How strong must the urge to write be to overcome that?’
Karl Ove Knausgård on Tarjei Vesaas.
Online Series | Resistance
Running Behind
Stephanie Wambugu
‘I missed a good portion of the outing and hoped the insult would come across.’
Stephanie Wambugu on chronic lateness.
Picture Me Crying
Rachel Connolly
‘Almost nobody has ever seen me cry. This has been true my entire life.’
Rachel Connolly on accessing vulnerability.
Things on Places
Jeremy Atherton Lin
‘The festoonery interrupts the usual, how things are meant to be.’
Jeremy Atherton Lin on resenting Christmas.
Principal Witness
Izabella Scott
‘The summons made clear that if I failed to turn up (which I had), a warrant could be issued for my arrest.’
Izabella Scott on court testimonies.
Free Botox
Amber Husain
‘I sensed, if you can believe it, that I was being fobbed off.’
Amber Husain on refusing free Botox.
From Granta 174: Therapy
Melanie Klein Among the U-Boats
Ben Parker
‘Whenever Richard mentioned Hitler, Klein unwaveringly substituted “Hitler” with “penis”.’
Ben Parker on Melanie Klein and child psychology.
Lacan in Tirana
Ardian Vehbiu
‘Psychoanalysis never truly took root in Albania during the early decades of the twentieth century and, after the communist takeover in 1944, it was actively suppressed by the regime.’
Ardian Vehbiu on Jacques Lacan’s visit to Albania.
The Narcissus Complex
Daisy Rockwell
‘What a great burden it was to be the artist son of a famous artist father.’
Daisy Rockwell on her father, painting, and her family’s psychoanalytic history.
The Vegetarian
Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith
Winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature
Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more ‘plant-like’ existence, decides to become a vegetarian, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares. In South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye’s decision is a shocking act of subversion. Her passive rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, leading her bland husband to self-justified acts of sexual sadism.
Fraught, disturbing and beautiful, The Vegetarian is a novel about modern day South Korea, but also a novel about shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others, from one imprisoned body to another.
