by Frank Wynne
At some point we turned back to the shelves. ‘Now I know,’ she said. Then we put the last of the pizza cartons in the trolley.
When I got to work the next day I went straight to the beverages aisles. Bruno always came a bit earlier to fetch the forklift from the recharging station, but I couldn’t find either him or the forklift.
There were more customers in the aisles than usual for the time of day. Perhaps there were a couple of good special offers on, and sometimes there are just days when people want to go shopping; I’ve never understood why that is. And I walked along the aisles; perhaps Bruno had something to do in another section, lending a hand, but actually they always gave me that kind of job, and then I saw the boss of ‘Shelf-filling/Night’. He was leaning against the whisky shelf, the customers passing right by him, but he seemed not to notice them at all as he stared at the tiled floor. I went up to him.
‘Hi boss,’ I said, ‘I’m looking for Bruno.’
He looked up and stared at me in surprise. ‘Bruno?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I’m on Beverages today, aren’t I?’
‘You’ll have plenty to do on Beverages for a while – Bruno’s not coming back.’ He gazed past me and I suddenly knew Bruno was dead. I felt like I had to vomit, and I leant against the shelf next to the boss. ‘He just went and hanged himself. That stupid bastard went and hanged himself.’ I felt a fist in my stomach; it wouldn’t let me go.
‘No one knows anything. I’ve known him for more than ten years. No one knows anything. Get your forklift and take care of the beverages.’
‘OK, Dieter,’ I said. I had trouble walking straight, and I kept thinking, ‘Bruno’s dead. Bruno’s hanged himself.’
I met all sorts of workmates as I wandered down the aisles and then realised I had to go to the recharging station. They seemed to know already and we just nodded at each other, some of them looking at me as if they wanted to talk about it with me, but I kept walking until I was at his forklift. I pulled the big charging cable out of the socket. I’d forgotten to switch the power off first; that was pretty dangerous, all it took was a touch of the contacts. I held onto the forklift and gave a quiet laugh: ‘One down’s enough for now!’ I got in, put the key in the ignition, and then I drove back to the aisles.
There was that smell, of animals and stables. His smell was still in the little cab, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if the seat had still been warm. I drove the forklift to Beverages and worked with his smell in my nostrils all night long.
And that smell again, country air, it was fertilising time. I stood on the narrow road leading to the graveyard – I could see it ahead, a little gate, the roof of the chapel – then I turned around and walked back down the road. The funeral would be starting any minute; there were a few workmates there and the bosses, and I’d brought flowers especially, but I walked back through the little village a couple of bus stops outside of town.
I stopped outside his house. It wasn’t far from the bus stop; he’d described it to me a few times. It was a perfectly normal two-storey detached house, like you’d find in lots of villages, not one of those old half-timbered ones or anything. The road was empty and I climbed over the fence. Maybe the gate wasn’t even locked, that’s probably normal in the kind of villages where everybody knows everybody, but I kind of felt inhibited about going into his place through the gate. I walked around the house. A stable, a couple of sheds, chickens pecking away at the ground, further back I saw two cows in a fenced-in field. At first I wanted to go in the stable, but then I saw the bench. It was against the back wall of one of the sheds. I went over to it. I sat down and looked out at the fields. There was a tractor with a trailer in one of them. It seemed not to be moving, and I could only tell by the couple of trees at the edge of the field that someone was driving it. A couple of birds flapped up around it. Why should I go into the stable? I didn’t know which beam it was anyway. I watched the tractor.
‘Raise the fork right to the top,’ said Marion.
‘Why?’
‘Hey come on, just do it. Bruno showed me it. I don’t know, I like it.’ I raised the empty fork as high as it would go. The forklift made its usual sounds, a humming and a metallic pling, then I let go of the lever. I tipped my head back and looked up at the fork, still swaying slightly. ‘And now?’
‘Let it down again, but really slowly. And then keep quiet.’
I moved the lever a tiny bit, and the carriage with the fork lowered itself down again slowly. ‘And now? I don’t understand.’
‘You have to be quiet. Really quiet. That sound, can you hear it, it’s like the sea.’
And she was right; I heard it now too and I was surprised I’d never noticed it before. The fork lowered with a hissing and whooshing sound from the air expelled from the hydraulics, and it really did sound like the wash of waves in the sea. The fork came lower; I sat in the forklift, my head slightly inclined. She stood right next to me, one hand on the control panel. ‘Can you hear it?’ she whispered, and I nodded. Then we listened in silence.
We hope you enjoyed this book.
Acknowledgements
Extended Copyright
About Frank Wynne
An Invitation from the Publisher
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I owe a great debt to many people who helped in the creation of this anthology.
I would like to thank my dear friend and agent, the late David Miller, who, with the connivance of Anthony Cheetham, gave me the gift of compiling this anthology. Thanks to my editor Helen Francis, for her encouragement, her support and her exemplary patience and to Emma Brady, for her tireless and invaluable work.
Thanks to James Roxburgh, Sam Wells and Anna Rebecca for their assistance in my research.
Above all I would like to thank translators everywhere, without whom – self-evidently – this book would not have been possible. In addition to all those who brought life to the words of the authors contained in these pages, I would like to thank those who, in person, in conversation, by email, by messenger offered advice and suggestions and frequently led me to discoveries I would never have made. Some are friends, others I know only through the translation hive mind made possible by social media. The following list is woefully incomplete; it is certainly an inadequate expression of my gratitude:
Daniel Hahn, Anne McLean, Shaun Whiteside, Peter Bush, Ros Schwartz, Lulu Norman, Louise Rogers Lalaurie, Deborah Smith, Jeffrey Zuckerman, Sarah Ardizzone, Antonia Lloyd Jones, David Colmer, Maureen Freely, Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp, Susan Bernofsky, Sandra Smith, Nick Caistor, Victoria Hislop, Lisa Rose Bradford, Lucy North, Jennifer Feeley, Rachel Hildebrandt, Mary Ann Newman, Alex Zucker, Sophie Voillot, Ellen Elias-Bursac, Tony Chambers, Ezra E. Fitz, Anna Gunin, Shelley Fairweather-Vega, Sam Schnee, Martin Cassell, Ani Jackson, Meg Matich, James Kates, M. René Bradshaw, Jamie Richards, Laurel Ann Taylor, Katherine Adams, Camilla Lu Chen and Mattho Mandersloot.
EXTENDED COPYRIGHT
Sait Faik Abasıyanık: ‘The Boy on the Tünel’ in A Useless Man: Selected Stories by Sait Faik Abasıyanık, translated by Maureen Freely and Alexander Dawe, published by Archipelago Books. © Sait Faik Abasıyanık and others. English translation © Maureen Freely and Alexander Dawe, 2014. Reprinted by permission of Archipelago Books.
José Eduardo Agualusa: ‘The Man with the Light’ by José Eduardo Agualusa, translated by Daniel Hahn. Copyright © José Eduardo Agualusa, translation © Daniel Hahn. Published by permission of Nicole Witt.
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa: ‘Rashōmon’ from Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, translated by Jay Rubin, published by Penguin Classics. Stories and editorial material © Jay Rubin 2006. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Random House.
Pédro Antonio de Alarcón: ‘The Tall Woman’, translated by Rollo Ogden. Public domain.
António Lobo Antunes: ‘Before Darkness Falls’ from The Fat Man and Infinity and Other Writings by António Lobo Antunes, translated by
Margaret Jull Costa, published by Granta. © António Lobo Antunes, translation © Margaret Jull Costa.
Aharon Appelfeld: ‘Cold Spring’, from The Oxford Book of Hebrew Short Stories, translated by J. Sloane. © Aharon Appelfeld 1996, translation © J. Sloane. Reprinted by permission of OUP.
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis: ‘The Fortune Teller’ by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, translated by Isaac Goldberg. Public domain.
Samira ‘Azzam: ‘Tears for Sale’ from Modern Arab Fiction: An Anthology, translated by Lena Jayyusi and Elizabeth Fernea, published by Columbia University Press. © 2005 Columbia University Press. Reprinted by permission of Columbia University Press.
Isaac Babel: ‘Salt’ from The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel by Isaac Babel, translated by Peter Constantine, published by W. W. Norton. © David McDuff 1994. Reprinted by permission of Pan MacMillan and W. W. Norton.
Banaphul (Balāi Chānd Mukhopādhyāy): ‘What Really Happened’ from What Really Happened: Stories by Banaphool (Balāi Chānd Mukhopādhyāy), translated by Arunava Sinha, published by Penguin India. © Balāi Chānd Mukhopādhyāy, translation © Arunava Sinha. Reprinted by permission of Penguin India.
Samuel Beckett: ‘Ping’ from The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories, translated by Samuel Beckett, published by Penguin Modern Classics. © Les Éditions de Minuit 1970. Translation © Richard Seaver in collaboration with Samuel Beckett 1967.
Thomas Bernhard: ‘The Crime of an Innsbruck Shopkeeper’s Son’ from Prose by Thomas Bernhard, translated by Martin Chalmers, published by Seagull Books. © Thomas Bernhard, 1967. Translation © Martin Chalmers. Reprinted by permission of Seagull Books.
Nina Berberova: ‘The Resurrection of Mozart’ from The Tattered Cloak and Other Stories by Nina Berberova, translated by Marian Schwartz, published by New Directions. © 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 by Actes Sud. Translation © 1990, 1991 by Marian Schwartz. Reprinted by permission of New Directions.
Roberto Bolaño: ‘Last Evenings on Earth’ from Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Chris Andrews, published by New Directions. © Estate of Roberto Bolaño 1997, 2001. English translation © Chris Andrews 2007. Reprinted by permission of New Directions.
Heinrich Böll: ‘Action Will be Taken’ from The Collected Stories of Heinrich Böll by Heinrich Böll, translated by Leila Vennewitz, published by Melville House. All stories © Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch GmbH & Co. KG, Cologne, Germany. With the exception of ‘The Mad Dog’, all stories are translated by and © Leila Vennewitz. Reprinted by permission of Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch GmbH & Co. KG, Cologne, Germany.
Jorge Luis Borges: ‘The Library of Babel’ by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley, published by David Godine. © Jorge Luis Borges, 1956, used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK), Limited.
Dino Buzzati: ‘Seven Floors’ from Catastrophe: The strange stories of Dino Buzzati, translated by Judith Landry and Cynthia Jolly, published by Calder & Boyars. © Arnoldo Mondadori Editore 1949, 1954, 1958. Translation © Calder and Boyars Ltd 1965. Reprinted by permission of Alma Books.
Italo Calvino: ‘The Poisonous Rabbit’ from Marcovaldo: Or the Seasons in the City by Italo Calvino, translated by Willian Weaver, published by Vintage Classics. © 1963 by Giulio Einaudi Editore, S.p.A. English translation © 1983 by Harcourt Brace & Company and Martin Secker & Warburg Limited. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Random House.
Enrico Castelnuovo: ‘It Snows’, translated by Edith Wharton. Public domain.
Constantine P. Cavafy: ‘In the Light of Day’, translated by Victoria Hislop. Translation © Victoria Hislop 2017. Public domain.
Miguel de Cervantes: ‘The Glass Graduate’, translated by C.A. Jones. Public domain.
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay: ‘Mahesh’ from The Greatest Bengali Stories Ever Told, translated by Arunava Sinha, published by Seagull Books. Translation © Arunava Sinha. Public domain.
Ismat Chughtai: ‘The Quilt’ from The Quilt and Other Stories by Ismat Chughtai, translated by Syeda Saiyidain Hameed. Public domain.
Anton Chekhov: ‘Rothschild’s Fiddle’ by Anton Chekhov, translated by Marian Fell. Public domain.
Maryse Condé: ‘The Breadnut and the Breadfruit’ from The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories, translated by Richard Philcox, published by Oxford University Press. Selection and editorial matter © Stewart Brown and John Wickham 1999. Reprinted by permission of Stewart Brown and OUP.
Julio Cortázar: ‘Axolotl’ from Hopscotch, Blow-Up, We Love Glenda So Much by Julio Cortázar, translated by Paul Blackburn, published by Penguin Random House. © Julio Cortázar. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Random House.
Gabriele D’Annunzio: ‘San Pantaleone’, translated by George McLean Harper. Public domain.
Alphonse Daudet: ‘L’Arlésienne’, translated by Mireille Harmelin and Keith Adams. Public domain.
Isak Dinesen: ‘Sorrow-Acre’ from Winter’s Tales by Isak Dinesen, translated by Isak Dinesen, published by Penguin Modern Classics. Copyright © Isak Dinesen, 1942.
Shūsaku Endō: ‘Incredible Voyage’ from Stained Glass Elegies: Stories by Shūsaku Endō, translated by Van C. Gessel, published by New Directions Revived Modern Classics. © 1959, 1965, 1969, 1973, 1979 by Shūsaku Endō. English translation © 1984 by Van C. Gessel.
Gustave Flaubert: ‘A Simple Heart’. Public domain.
Maxim Gorky: ‘Twenty-Six Men and a Girl’, translated by J.M. Shirazi. Public domain.
Knut Hamsun: ‘Secret Sorrow’ from Tales of Love and Loss by Knut Hamsun, translated by Robert Ferguson, published by Souvenir Press. © Gyldendal Norsk Forlag 1987, 1903, 1905. English translation © Robert Ferguson 1997. Reprinted by permission of Souvenir Press.
Wilhelm Hauff: ‘The Severed Hand’, translated by C. A. Feiling. Public domain.
Ichiyō Higuchi (Natsu Higuchi): ‘Child’s Play’ from In the Shade of Spring Leaves: The Life and Writings of Higuchi Ichiyō, a Woman of Letters in Meiji Japan by Ichiyō Higuchi, translated by Robert Danly, published by W. W. Norton. © 1981 Robert Lyons Danly. Reprinted by permission of W. W. Norton.
E. T. A. Hoffmann: ‘The Sandman’, translated by John Oxenford. Public Domain.
Bohumil Hrabal: ‘A Dull Afternoon’ from The Death of Mr. Baltisberger by Bohumil Hrabal, translated by Michael Henry Heim. Excerpt(s) from THE DEATH OF MR. BALTISBERGER by Bohumil Hrabal, translated by Michael Henry Heim, translation copyright © 1974, 1975 by Penguin Random House LLC. Used by permission of Doubleday, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Paweł Huelle: ‘Silver Rain’ from ReBerth: Stories from Cities on the Edge, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, published by Comma Press. © Paweł Huelle, translation © Antonia Lloyd-Jones.
Khalida Husain: ‘Dead Letter’ from The Oxford Book of Urdu Short Stories, translated by Amina Azfar, published by Oxford University Press. © Oxford University Press 2009. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press.
Yu Hua: ‘On the Road at Eighteen’ from The Past and the Punishments by Yu Hua, translated by Andrew F. Jones, published by University of Hawaii Press. © Yu Hua; translation © Andrew F. Jones. Reprinted by permission of University of Hawaii Press.
Guillermo Cabrera Infante: ‘The Voice of the Turtle’ from The Voice of the Turtle by Guillermo Cabrera Infante, translated by Peter Bush, published by Quartet. © Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1990. Translation © Peter Bush 1996. Reprinted by permission of Peter Bush.
Hamid Ismailov: ‘The Stone Guest’ by Hamid Ismailov, published by Words Without Borders, translated by Shelley Fairweather-Vega. © Hamid Ismailov, translation © Shelley Fairweather-Vega. Reprinted by permission of Words Without Borders.
Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz: ‘The Birch Grove’ from The Birch Grove and Other Stories by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, published by Central European Univers
ity Press. Central European Classic Trust, 2002. © Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, translation © Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Reprinted by permission of Central European University Press.
Miljenko Jergović: ‘You’re the Angel’ from Mama Leone by Miljenko Jergović, translated by David Williams, published by Archipelago. © Milenko Jergović, 1999. English language translation © David Williams, 2012. Reprinted by permission of Archipelago Books.
Tanizaki, Jun’ichirō: ‘The Tattooer’ from Seven Japanese Tales by Tanizaki, Jun’ichirō, translated by Howard Hibbett, published by Vintage International. © Tanizaki, Jun’ichirō, translation copyright © Howard Hibbett. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Random House.
Oh Jung-Hee: ‘Garden of my Childhood’ from Words Without Borders, translated by Ha-yun Jung. © Oh Jung-Hee, translation © Ha-yun Jung. Reprinted by permission of Words Without Borders.
Ismail Kadaré: ‘Before the Bath’ from Flash Fiction Forward: 80 Very Short Stories by Ismail Kadaré, translated by Peter Constantine. © 2006 by Ismail Kadaré. Translation © Peter Constantine.
Franz Kafka: ‘In the Penal Colony’ from Kafka’s Selected Stories by Franz Kafka, translated by Ian Johnston, published by W. W. Norton
Etgar Keret: ‘The Nimrod Flipout’ from The Nimrod Flipout: Stories, translated by Miriam Shlesinger and Sondra Silverston, published by Chatto. © 2004, 2006 by Etgar Keret. Translation © 2004, 2006 by the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Random House.
