Fiction

The dissector instructed us to identify the tympanic membrane, a thin connective tissue that carried vibrations into the inner ear. Daniel and his partner Julie were on the cadaver’s left, and I was on the right. “Did you find it?” I asked them. I was lost, as usual, and disgusted. Each day after anatomy class,…

Translated from the Icelandic by the author during a multinational, musical theater performance about a sea journey, a plainly dressed woman in her sixties gets up from her seat in the center of the third row, and holding her purse tight in her hands she starts making her way to the steps to her right….

They met at a dinner party. She was young and blond. He, tall, dark, and dead. Seated beside him, she found it hard to stop watching his pale, veined fingers stroke the fabric of his placemat. She only knew her aunt here whereas he seemed a friend to most. Across the table, a mousy guy…

I met my wife in Palau. Here’s how you find Palau on a map: Look for San Juan, then look for the farthest point from it. It was a dive trip my father had promised when I started college. By the time I had my BA, we hadn’t spoken for nearly ten months. Still, I…

Cuauh always greases the landings. If the winds are strong, he lands in the desert north of Obregon, on a sand strip outlined by burning tar barrels, desert oak, and split saguaro cut lengthwise to catch the neon sun. But if the winds are calm, Cuauh lumbers his aircraft, an aging M20J, onto a neighborhood…

Translated from the Hebrew by Yardenne Greenspan Harmony Dreams may be the soul’s Autocorrect, but one man dreamt he was sitting in a fridge, freezing and waiting for someone to open the door. Before his savior’s identity was revealed, he woke up in complete darkness and was surprised to find it was only 3 a.m….

An old woman believes that her Christmas tree wants to get married. Her caretaker says: —No, it’s just a tree. See? Come here! Feel it! The old woman feels a branch. —Oh, you’re right, it is a tree. But the old woman is still worried. —But inside…inside, there is a woman who wants to come…

To you who eat a lot of rice because you are lonely To you who sleep a lot because you are bored To you who cry a lot because you are sad I write this down. Chew on your feelings that are cornered Like you would chew on rice. Anyway life is something that you…

I went to my father’s room in the back hall of the boarding house. The door was open a little, and I could see he was asleep. An old sheet was pulled up to his neck, and he lay looking at the white ceiling with his eyes closed, breathing softly. His foot stuck out at…