Michael Mirolla's poetic world is one where a mirror, or any simple reflective item is tilted ever so slightly, providing an opening to places we never imagined existed. (One of them is his own birth, from the inside, looking reluctantly out.) The poet is a metaphysical detective, finding the cracks and gashes that open into other worlds. Uncomfortable in the here and now, he would rather spend time in the past/future, or on the edge of that mirror. Luckily for us, shaped by his reflective...

Michael Mirolla, in The Photographer in Search of Death, tells us stories that blend the explicable with the inexplicable. As if a camel were actually passing through the eye of a needle, these stories pass what is commonplace through a hyper-realistic lens into the utterly mysterious. Houses have rooms that appear and disappear. Very real objects, invaded by an unbelievable force, become believably unreal. Streets filled with everyday individuals become – in our modern technologi...

The landlord, the husband, the wife, and the lover. Giulio di Orio, an assistant lecturer in Philosophy, brings one of his students, known as Torp—short for Torpedo—to the Vancouver flat he shares with his wife Nicole. Soon their landlord is convinced that Torp is the devil incarnate, and the police have arrested him for the street bombings that have been plaguing the city. A sexually-charged tale bubbling with lust, suspected murder, and the twilight of the flower children—all set against...

Migration stories are an essential component of Canada's historical/literary continuum; we need to know of such writings to rationalize about who Canadians really are, and where they are from. Aren't we all the children of migration? Where we came from, how we got here, who we were, and are, and who may become in time ? such themes should interest all those naturally concerned about identity and origin; that eternal enigma wrought of migration. These short-fiction stories tell much about m...

This migration anthology is an entertaining miscellany of factual stories, essays, newspaper reportage, and even a poem, all of which highlight the humour, as well as the ironies and agonies generated when humans seek a new homeland. The authors, and their stories, are as diverse as our Canadian population itself, and help to tell who we all are within this amazing, tolerant, nurturing geographic space called Canada. All migrants have stories, but not all are writers, so although most auth...

The Independent Best Book for Walkers 2022 Where can a walk take you?It goes without saying, walking can connect us to our surroundings and free us from our worries. It can raise our heart rate and relax our minds. It can lead us across historic ground and inspire new thinking.In this beautiful collection, twenty outstanding writers set out with old memories and new adventures. ‘I’ve always hated walking,’ Harland Miller offers as his precis, while Ingrid Persaud a...

What are the ethics of writing about a place you visit as an outsider? With Granta's long tradition of travel writing in mind, we ask some of the foremost writers of the genre: is travel writing dead?Tara Bergin, Rana Dasgupta, Geoff Dyer, Eliza Griswold, Mohsin Hamid, Lindsey Hilsum, Colin Thubron, Pico Iyer, Ian Jack, Robert Macfarlane, Wendell Steavenson, Samanth Subramanian and Alexis WrightPlus:William Atkins investigat...

A quick read from the bestselling storyteller, Josephine Cox. Love at first sight and a mysterious disappearance.Best friends Mark and Pete board a train to London for a night out.As Pete finds a seat he notices a girl sitting on a bench. She looks sad and lonely. When the train leaves, he can't get her out of his mind because in her he has seen a glimpse of himself.Over the coming months Pete sees the girl often, but when tempted to speak to her, his courage fails....

Garnering international prizes and acclaim before its publication, Ilustrado has been called "brilliantly conceived and stylishly executed . . .It is also ceaselessly entertaining, frequently raunchy, and effervescent with humor" (2008 Man Asian Literary Prize panel of judges).It begins with a body. On a clear day in winter, the battered corpse of Crispin Salvador is pulled from the Hudson River—taken from the world is the controversial lion of Philippine literature. Gone, ...

“Beautiful. The human condition is on full display in these glimpses of our essential connectedness. Perfect for our times.”—Dani Shapiro, author of InheritanceSixty-five extraordinary writers grapple with this mystery: How can an ephemeral encounter with a stranger leave such an eternal mark?When Colleen Kinder put out a call for authors to write a letter to a stranger about an unforgettable encounter, she opened the floodgates. Th...

Penguin Specials are designed to fill a gap. Written by some of our best and most exciting writers, to be read over a long commute or a short journey, in your lunch hour or between dinner and bedtime, these ebooks provide a short escape into a fictional world or act as a primer in a particular field or provide a new angle on an old subject. This sampler includes extracts from all of the Australian Penguin Specials published to date.

Since publishing A Woman’s World in 1995, Travelers’ Tales has been the recognized leader in women’s travel literature, and with the launch of the annual series The Best Travel Writing in 2004, the obvious next step was an annual collection of the best women’s travel writing of the year. This title is the seventh in an annual series-The Best Women’s Travel Writing-that presents inspiring and uplifting adventures from women who have traveled to the ends of the earth to dis...