History

Uri Orlev
from: Hebrew

The Chinese

Reading Time : 15min

James Baldwin
from: English

Previous Condition

I got no story, Ma”, says Peter in this story, but despite the political reality and his own protagonist’s resolved words, Baldwin insists: not to overcome, not to keep silent, but make a big deal, make a story out of it.

Reading Time : 17min

Maureen F. McHugh
from: English

The Lincoln Train

What would’ve happened if the Confederate States had won the American Civil War? An alternative-history story that reassesses the generosity of winners.

Reading Time : 35min

Herman Melville
from: English

The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids

In a story which consists of two parts, Herman Melville – the great American autor – tells of two ways of being, each closed within its borders, each in its own way: the Londonian circle of free bachelors, and the society of women laborers at a one of its kind paper factory in America.

Reading Time : 41min

Brian Stableford
from: English

Mortimer Gray’s History of Death

Reading Time : 28min

Jaume Cabré
from: Catalan

Gottfried Heinrich’s Dream

Jaume Cabré with a story about music that comes from the heart. 

Reading Time : 18min

Virginia Woolf
from: English

The Mark on the Wall

Written in crystalline prose, this moment of observation transcends as one of Virginia Woolf’s most profound works of short prose, touching here on being human and on the flight of thought.

Reading Time : 15min

Honoré de Balzac
from: French

El Verdugo

Young Juanito is given an incomprehensible deed to execute, which leaves the fate of his entire family in his hands. “El Verdugo” – the executioner – is a dramatic tale based, according to its author, on an actual incident from the days of Napoleon’s war in Spain.

Reading Time : 19min

Hartmut Lange
from: German

The Waldstein Sonata

This story proposes an impossible experiment in an impossible situation. Is there place for art or beauty in the most contentious bunker on earth, hours before the end of WWII?

Reading Time : 20min

Giovanni Carmelo Verga
from: Italian

Rustic Chivalry

Turiddu Macca, a bersagliere soldier, is coming home to his village in Sicily. After he had fought, now he must love. Would he be a man of his word? A classic tale by Giovanni Carmelo Verga.

Reading Time : 10min

S. Yizhar
from: Hebrew

Gila

The first translation into English of a story by one of the greatest Hebrew writers, Based on his experiences as a teacher in the legendary Ben Shemen youth village.

Reading Time : 8min

Jonathan Swift
from: English

A Modest Proposal

In this poignant, satire of 1729, Jonathan Swift suggests the impoverished Irish people should eat their children. For obvious reasons, this text was originally published under a pseudonym.

Reading Time : 17min