Five years on since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, we celebrate the resilience of Afghan women through publishing this letter exchange between Maryam Mahjoba, a young fiction writer living in Kabul, and the Somali British novelist, Nadifa Mohamed, living in London.
‘Cows turn their big faces, and I am afraid of how life goes on until we die. All those dead tucked into the ground as the ancient Mercedes purrs by.’
‘We resented the fact that she thought we would be impressed by Doug. And we also resented that we were, maybe, impressed by Doug.’
On this month’s episode Nicole is joined by Thomas Morris to read from and discuss his story ‘Notes on Contributors’.
Salvage, an extraordinary ‘autobiography of the autobiography of reading’, has found a form that is not quite literary criticism, not quite autobiography, but that troubles the architecture of both.
‘He brings his bottom lip over his top lip and makes it touch his small nose. It makes him look older somehow and like he’s disappointed in me. I remember feeling disappointed in my father when I asked him simple questions and received complicated answers.’
‘Cows turn their big faces, and I am afraid of how life goes on until we die. All those dead tucked into the ground as the ancient Mercedes purrs by.’
‘We resented the fact that she thought we would be impressed by Doug. And we also resented that we were, maybe, impressed by Doug.’
‘He brings his bottom lip over his top lip and makes it touch his small nose. It makes him look older somehow and like he’s disappointed in me. I remember feeling disappointed in my father when I asked him simple questions and received complicated answers.’
‘A radio station blares such shitty muzak that I double-check to make sure this is, in fact, the man who was my father back in Dublin.’
Image by Abdul Bacet ‘This operation is important to us. Very important. Even more important than lessons, homework, or solving riddles. We can’t mess this up, because Ziwar’s fate is at stake.’
‘I could have no quarrel with the original jury’s verdict, or so Farrington told me anyway. Agent McNally was as dead as dead could be, and by my hand.’
Thomas Morris
The Stinging Fly Podcast
June Caldwell
The Stinging Fly Podcast
Ella Gaynor
The Stinging Fly Podcast
Five years on since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, we celebrate the resilience of Afghan women through publishing this letter exchange between Maryam Mahjoba, a young fiction writer living in Kabul, and the Somali British novelist, Nadifa Mohamed, living in London.
‘Cows turn their big faces, and I am afraid of how life goes on until we die. All those dead tucked into the ground as the ancient Mercedes purrs by.’
‘We resented the fact that she thought we would be impressed by Doug. And we also resented that we were, maybe, impressed by Doug.’