Granta 143: After the Fact

Granta: The Magazine of New Writing #143

by Sigrid Rausing (Editor)

Britain is leaving the European Union. Donald Trump is the president of the United States. Palmyra's monuments have been destroyed by ISIS. The Antarctic shelf is breaking up. The warnings, the debates, the arguments and the elections have all given way to reality. What happens on the ground once the news cycle moves on? How do we understand what we've done, and why?

This issue of Granta looks at what comes next.

Don McCullin and Charles Glass return to a ruined Palmyra; Gavin Francis and Esa Aldegheri cross four Syrian borders on a motorbike; Jason Cowley on Harlow, a former 'Mark One New Town' where he grew up; Ben Rawlence on climate change relocation programmes.

Plus excellent new fiction, poetry and photography.

Genres: Fiction, Poetry, Literature, Anthologies

255 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2018

About the author

Sigrid Rausing is Editor and Publisher of Granta magazine and Publisher of Granta and Portobello Books. She is the author of History, Memory and Identity in Post-Soviet Estonia: The End of a Collective Farm and Everything is Wonderful, which has been translated into four different languages.

Reviews

[Paul Dembina · Rating 3 out of 5]

As usual a real mixed bag. Also as usual I really don't get the poems at all.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The political world seems to be turning into fiction, with unexpectedly dramatic and bewildering plots and subplots. By contrast, in this issue of Granta we try to disentangle theatre and politics, and remember that acts have consequences, and that those consequences, whilst not always predictable are rarely surprising."

I am still thinking about whether I a) understand and b) agree with this statement that opens the editor’s introduction to this anthology. The write ups make a big deal of the Brexit and Trump connections. Brexit was not predictable, but I think that it was surprising for many of us who took part in the vote.

As is normal for Granta magazine, this is a collection of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and photography that looks at cultural dislocation and violence in a Brexit/Trump world, but on a wider scale than just USA and UK. We read about Harlow in UK where an altercation not long after the Brexit vote ended in a man's death that immediately was labelled, falsely, as the "Brexit murder". In court, it became apparent it was not murder and was not racially motivated, but the press had lost interest by then. But we also read about the impact of ISIS in Palmyra and we see a series of photographs showing man's impact on the world. These are just examples of the fourteen different pieces in the magazine. I found several though provoking and some a bit uninspiring, but that always seems to be the way with a collection from a variety of different sources.

Overall, an interesting read, but not quite as interesting as I was expecting from the write up.

[Susan Emmet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this issue, especially the photography which makes one re/consider what horrors we humans have wrought over time. Edward Burtynksy's work is amazing. The viewer is torn about perspective and subject since all are taken from unexpected height and angle.
As a non-Trumper and worrier about the state of the environment and the world, I just finished planting seeds - lettuce, beets, onions and shallots. All the while I was thinking about this issue.
What is locked in mind? Susan Straight's "The Perseids," Sana Valiulina's "Root and Branch," Joshua Cohen's "Mall Camp, Seasons 1 & 2," Charles Glass' "Palmyra" with Don McCullin's photographs, Brian Allen Care's "Snow Job," and AM Homes' "Days of Awe."
Actually, I found twelve or the fourteen pieces most arresting, but don't have time now to comment individually.
So after the fiascos and lies and dislocations, what is left? Can there be healing? Or are the huge car parks, tanker dumps, polluted sites, ruined antiquities our continued modus operandi? WIll we continue to be hogtied by corrupt politics and religious forces?

[simon crossley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Granta can be unpredictable wth is diverse content. Sadly, the fiction did not our me in this time. The poems pass me by. The photo essays, however, never let me down and the Harlow comparisons were a delight, in the same way as the Palmyra essay was disturbing. The non fiction was what lured me in the most. Harlow, as told by Jason Cowley, had a rich underbelly of history for a new town. The family history back to the gulag with Sana Valiulina, was painful but need to be told. Finally, Mall Camp season 1 and 2 by Joshua Cohen was a promising lesson in survival.

[Rue Baldry · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this Issue ("After the Fact") I thought the fiction was strong and memorable, and very varied. I wasn't so sure about the photos, but I think they suffer from being printed small enough, on non-photographic paper, to be included. This was particularly true in this issue as the subjects were mostly large landscapes and cityscapes. The non-fiction was a mixed bag. I was interested in the essay on Harlow, because I knew the town in the '80s. The essay on London shops was better written but of less interest to me personally. I never 'get' any of the poetry.

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed alot of these essays and short stories especially those about Palmyra, the last shopkeepers in London and the refugees living in unfinished shopping malls ~ very thought provoking. The photography was amazing also, Edward Burtynksy brought to my attention some of the destruction humans cause to the natural world. A very enjoyable edition.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a superb collection from Granta, with powerful fiction, photography, and reportage. Some of my favorites:

AM Homes's Days of Awe - engrossing character study

Nathaniel Mackey's Song of the Andoumboulou - enigmatic poetry

Palmyra - a heartbreaking tale of the destruction of antiquity by present day philistines

New Town Blues - dreams of utopia gone sadly awry

Renderings - challenging photography

The Last Shopkeepers of London - witty and spry reportage of a dying idiosyncratic species

The Perseids - a superb tale of alienation and endangerment told in a flip-flopping timeline

Mall Camp - another crushing tale, this time of the lives of refugees. There but by the grace of goddess material.

Highly recommended.

[Alistair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories, poems and essays innit. Some are great (loved the AM Holmes one) others less engaging. Hard to rate generically but I'll just give it 3 stars.

[Josiah Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good issue with many different voices. Of course the Joshua Cohen story was a favorite and a great way to closer out the issue.

[Emmapettitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of American English in this one - not a criticism, merely a comment. Usual mix of quality and interest for me, and I particularly enjoyed the photography in this issue.

[Ray Quirolgico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prescient or sadly historic, this collection of works examines the dramatic theatricality of politics around the world.

[Anna Alexander]

I really wanted to like this book, but the stories weren't cohesive and only a few held my interest.

[Chris]

Granta 143 could be put in a time capsule (such as antiquated notion) to be unearthed by some future alien generation and read to capture this moment of human existence. Jason Cowley on the hope and promise of New Town that failed partly because of design, partly because human hesitancy. This new-constructed town, Harlow, becomes the site of what was quickly termed and spread as the "Brexit Murder".
Ho Suk Fong, "Lake Like A Mirror" looks at the tension teachers face as they try to expand their students' world by talking about "the others" in society. "Palmyra" by Charles Glass with Photos by Don McCullin documents the recent destruction of this ancient World Heritage site. Photos by Edward Burtynsky capture the human scars forever marking the surface of the Earth. David Flusfeder visits the dying independent retail stores around London. Sona Valuilina writes of her father, taken as a POW by the Nazis and returned to his homeland as an "enemy of the people". Joshua Cohen writes of refugees housed in a dead Mall, a clash of humanities failures.
AM Homes, Brian Allen Carr, and Susan Straight write fiction pieces that urge me to read more by them.

[Chelsey Hillyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites:
-Days of Awe by AM Homes
-Snow Job by Brian Allen Carr