The Madonna of the Sea
There is a Madonna at the bottom of the crystalline waters off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy, standing guard near a gap where two rocks curve in an unfinished embrace. Dead leaves and fish float above her like drifting feathers, shimmering in the swatch of sunlight...
The Handmaid’s Tale
All those women having jobs: hard to imagine, now, but thousands of them had jobs, millions. It was considered the normal thing. Now it’s like remembering the paper money, when they still had that. My mother kept some of it, pasted into her scrapbook along with...
Brown
Of course, I did spare a thought for a little boy I’d seen earlier that day. He was kneeling on the other side of the street, sobbing away to himself. On the ground in front of him, a small white dog was lying dead. But I knew he’d soon get over it. After...