May 28, 2016 | Lies, Truth & Lies |
Five years pass, five years searching for an explanation, going back over everything, over the circumstances that shaped her, the people and the events that influenced her, and none of it adequate to begin to explain the bombing until he remembers the Buddhist monks,...
May 21, 2016 | Lies, Truth & Lies |
“Plastic hairband, unbreakable, plastic hairclip, flower shape, butterfly shape, colourful comb, unbreakable.” The combseller recited in a half-hearted monotone, uncertain whether this was a real customer or just a joker passing the time. “Big comb and small comb,...
May 1, 2016 | Lies, Truth & Lies |
From the Veranda of the Room of the Last Chrysanthemum at the Magistracy The Ninth Day of the Ninth Month Gulls wheel through spokes of sunlight over gracious roofs and dowdy thatch, snatching entrails at the marketplace and escaping over cloistered gardens,...
Apr 12, 2016 | Lies, Truth & Lies |
“I have a right to know everything that pertains to the experiment, and that includes my future.” “No reason why you shouldn’t know.” He paused and lit an already lit cigarette. “You understand, of course, that from the beginning we...
Apr 9, 2016 | Lies, Truth & Lies |
‘This is about’ – the Irishman balances his hat on his thigh – ‘what we’d call, at home, a “skeleton in the cupboard”.’ ‘On Walcheren we say, “a body in the vegetable patch”.’ ‘Monster turnips, then, on Walcheren. May I speak in English?’ ‘Do so. If I need your help,...
Feb 26, 2016 | Truth, Truth & Lies |
For over a century the Portuguese had policed the maritime trade of the Arabian sea and, although their power might be declining further east, they still had formidable influence at the Moghul court and at every port between Goa and their Persian base at Hormuz....