People died for a bit of cabbage, I escalated.

Thirteen years that had gone by so quickly, with their ups and downs. Lots of downs . . . Hard luck, wrong choices, missed opportunities.

I feel honored by your invitation to present the academy with a report on my former life as an ape.

Is this some sort of joke? Just because my name sounds Spanish doesn't mean that I am from Argentina.

Here, in this hotel room with yellowish, scratched walls, Clara found an incomplete solitude.

Vicente Rangel González pulled out the twenty-two-caliber pistol he'd paid for in ten installments, undid his belt and put on the holster.

There are stories that seem impossible to tell.

They promised to purge the media during their campaign. And they're going to start with us, he chewed on his cigarette in despair.

I believe in God, but I would never kill in his name, said Argudíin, ignoring Vladimiro's provocation.

To turn the stone over in the palm of my hand, scrutinize it more closely, a real stone, a diamond in the rough?

It was still morning, and we felt ourselves heading into the sea as we sped along this last, ever-narrowing strip of Sicily.

What fate does the future hold for me? Jason asked, intrigued.

What would you say, Boss, he asked, if I offered you a job that would keep the heat off your back?

They warned her that one more offense against good behavior and the promised trip to the promised land (the United States) would be cancelled . . .

Chapter FiveWe were working on “recording” the following scenes from my novel: the Sunday lunch in the garden at Manuel’s house, where the two families part amicably, mothers and aunts…

What would I do, Beatriz, if something happens to you? How would your father feel if something happens to you? Don't you think about that?

The cat took off. Right before it started. I was running after it when I lost my balance - thought I was getting anemic or something.

We ate worms, the most expensive dish at the restaurant.

A great fear and alarm took hold of her when she heard the high priest's words.

She had gestured with her free hand while the other had gripped his hand and the card.

When Abu Gamal revealed Shaykh Hasan's secret to the residents of Number 36 . . .

Forget the admirer, Saniya. This guy will not take care of you.

They will kidnap you, daddy's girl.

We had to walk. This necessity made me happy. I hadn't been this happy for a long while, I thought.

I do not know what to say to you, said the director. Therefore I shall say nothing.

Perhaps they might meet the village lads or the male patients of the men's sanatorium, as spent as themselves. What else was there to do in the midst of the Black Forest?

Sorrow is a dirt for her, the moment she notices a speck of it smeared on her body, she scrubs it off her skin.

But in that moment of pure amazement, while some blew prayers to the right and left or panicked and almost wet their pants, a few risked touching the bus gingerly.

That is my life. There is no escape from any memories.

When I was eight years old I decided to run away from home. There’s no sense explaining why right now. Maybe some other time. Let’s just say that where I used to live, on via Vincenzo Gemito…

Of course it had to be salsa,which Broschkus detested. In a perfunctory way, he set his legs in motion, more the representation of a dance than the dance itself, he wanted to focus on the silvery toenails…

Reaching into the first drawer of the counter behind him, he pulled out a red rose with a long stem. And he also left this for you.

You're from Beirut? she cried, the words tumbling out of her mouth and her eyes filling with tears.

Guy like him deserves to get the daylights beaten out of him.

I'll jerk them out of your head if you don't clean up in front of the woodshed next time, she screamed.

“Ah! So you’re a real person?”He smiled in amusement. “So it would seem.”

I come from Spite and Remorse.

Hold on tight. And when I held on to his hair, as he told me to, I got his sticky and greasy hair tonic all over my hands.

For the rap version of this story, click here.1She’s here, she’s here. Here at the office to see us. The Big Dog, her manager, comes, too. Comes in a bomb-ass Chrysler, his lackeys tag along.…

McCain looked at his watch, remembered his abandoned pool game, his whisky, and his buddies who were waiting for him, and answered distractedly: Everything is gonna be fine.

On Saturday afternoons, I'm the only woman at the Fetishists' Club. Otherwise it's just men.

Note: This piece was originally written in Zapoteco.In the old days, inside the Green Mountain, there lived a giant serpent who acted as if it were the master of the place, rixxo. The serpent was so old…

Note: This piece was originally written in Purépecha.There once was a man who was very poor, but also indolent. He tried hard to survive, by cutting firewood in the countryside and by selling it, in order…

Note: This poem was originally written in Zapoteco.There was someone in the old days, they say, who wanted to learn to lie. That’s what he told his father, who answered, “I will send you to…

Note: This piece was originally written in Yucatecan Maya. It comes from a very small publication in a part of the Yucatán peninsula still very close to the area dominated by groups that remain organized…

“As you see, that was how our Creator lived, He who created everything and He who created man. He never walked like men. While he lived on earth, He always kept himself holy. He never sinned despite…

Note: This piece was originally written in Ñahñu.A traveler felt hungry and stopped at a house, asking if they would sell him some food. The lady of the house said yes, that she would give him some food,…

Note: This piece was originally written in Yucatecan Maya, and was probably adapted from the oral tradition. The Maya to Spanish translation was done in a collaboration with Miguel Angel May May, Santiago…

Note: This piece was originally written in Purépecha.Don Nicolas used to get up early every day to the sound of the birds singing. Although the cold bothered his eyes, he quickly got dressed, and before…

Note: This piece was originally written in Yucatecan Maya. The author, Miguel May, is a personal friend. He lives in Mérida, Yucatán. His family still lives in a small town not far from the city. Although…

Note: This piece was originally written in Tzotzil. The village of Chamula, where Tzotzil is spoken far more frequently than Spanish, has maintained much of its Tzotzil Maya language and tradition.It…

Note: This piece was originally written in Náhuatl.We only change the way we live…. Thus it is explained in the tale of the experience of two people who lived through the following revelation.“When…

Note: This piece was originally written in Mazateco.Naxá, the daughter of Ts’uí and Sa, was deeply in love with a young campesino named Xungá, who lived in one of the most humble huts in the village.…

Note: This poem was originally written in Mixteco.This is what our ancestors said, this is what our elders told us: that we lived in peace with our fellow men in this world, because we were all made of…

They squeezed us and they piled us up to fill up the city, to live like ants, like crazed lizards in the middle of trash.

Note: This piece was originally written in Purépecha.There once was a man who had gone to a city to sell ashes; upon arriving he spread out his “merchandise” in the town square and there he…

The old man tugged his vest down over his hips. The rattling downstairs continued, it was a disconcerting, urgent sound, and now it was compounded by knocking.

The train moved off and her journey of despair began.

Then I listened to the trial on the radio, like everyone else here, but it was different for me because it was personal.

“A 3-D portrait of the empathy one stranger experiences on behalf of another.”—Heidi Julavits