Fiction

hole Yes, I sometimes think that my grandfather was just fucking around with me. Before I was born, he planted a willow in the yard. When I was around five, I asked him why we bury the dead in the ground. G: Their coffins are like boats. They use them to sail to their loved […]

The Central Market A: How long have you been working here? B: Five years. C: What do you mean, five years? Eight, at least! A: So, how long is it then? B: All right then, eight years. C: At least eight years. I remember when we started. The place hadn’t yet been overrun by Chinese.

During the first Bolshevik occupation Antanas Garšva wasn’t able to publish his poems or articles in any of the Soviet newspapers or magazines. His work was called reactionary and formalist. Garšva and his father lived in the summer cottage at Aukštoji Panemune. It was a small cottage. Four rooms, a kitchen, a glassed-in porch. A

WILL THERE BE AN EXECUTION? The grey sky hung lower than usual. Pieces of ice the size of chicken eggs spilled out when it opened up, and everyone had to take cover to avoid being killed. But today the despicable cousin of the Master of the Livonian Order was to be beheaded! And all the

The Great Synagogue was filled with light. It seemed like the April morning sun had suddenly moved to illuminate the grand vaults of the holy prayer house. “Do you like this?” Grandma Rokha asked, bending over and whispering into my ear. “Yes, I do,” I said truthfully. “Will you tell that to your papa and

This never happened, but it could have. I dedicate my book to the Conqueror The Alpha Star, or Polaris, and the Little Dipper Polaris is the brightest star in the constellation of Ursa Minor. To be more precise, it’s a system of three stars, comprising one super-giant star with a luminosity that varies cyclically, and

In memoriam L. C. The First: on teachers and students, on ecological niches and being yourself Forging unites metals, a purpose unites beasts and birds, fear and greed unite fools, a view unites honest people I always wanted to write you letters. In this tumultuous time, as everyone chatters over another, failing to listen to

Rhododendron ferrugineum 1. A good decade ago, Ambassador V. invited me to join him for lunch at the Alpenrose, a Swiss restaurant in Riga’s old town. Its blue façade was festooned with images of white blossoms and grazing brown heifers wearing cowbells around their necks. Early in the day, the refrigerator was stocked with little

I spot Paula from a distance. Noticing me, she stops at the door. Paula is Portuguese; she is the building’s concierge. We get along well: when I go away, I always leave her the spare keys. You never know what might happen. But that she would wait like that … The wheels in my ears

The Bottle Danius badly needed a drink. He stood in front of the shelf of bottles and couldn’t decide, because he wanted to find a drink that wouldn’t make him feel sick. He examined all the bottles in the shop, and all of them made him feel nauseous. Then he said quietly: Lord, make it