Home of The Naughty Stories Series
I was in the middle of a translation; and, as it was a particularly tricky one, my brain was starting to fog with quibbles, so I stepped out onto the balcony and stretched. From my balcony, I should point out, if one looked left, one could make out the blue of the sea. It was …
Leaning against the wall of the old university building, Daniel took a joint from the pocket of his wide pants. Cofi went wide-eyed: “You smoking that here?” Even though it was broad daylight and people were milling about, Daniel had no compulsion about lighting the joint. Cofi kept looking up and down the street to …
If Katarina and Amelia had always felt rather sorry for Guisi, they were in two minds about inviting her to their party. “What’s wrong with Guisi?” asked Patrick. “Nothing,” said Amelia. “She’s a little dull. That’s all.” “She’s not dull,” said Katarina, “she is spectacularly boring.” “You mean she’s a little dyed in the wool?” …
By his own estimation of the waters you did not need to know much about Piero to know things were looking decidedly lumpy. His wife had left him two years before for a fisherman; his one and only daughter had moved to the north – apparently also in pursuit of a fisherman; as a consequence, …
Once upon a time, in the days before we all had little wheely bins to take on Ryanair or Easyjet, Patrick had a black Roncon suitcase with a blue strap around its middle to secure it. When it did not come up on the carousel, he went outside to smoke a cigarette. Finishing his cigarette, …
“If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.” Il Gattopardo, Giuseppe di Lampedusa Without a doubt Gavin Brady was a product of that mythical time in the faculty when it was enough to flash your Irish passport and the professors would assume you were a literary descendant of James …
Guy had just been taken on as lettore, or reader, in the faculty of literature and foreign languages when he was asked to be part of the commission for the new research post. One of the candidates was a young woman. She entered the room on towering heels and made a big show of tucking …
The office was full. With only one booth open there was only one thing to do. He kept calling, at the top of his voice, until they sent for the manager. “Ingegnere, mi dica?” “Who is running this place?” he said. “I comunisti?” The Engineer always rose early. Though that morning he had special reason …
It is a well-known conceit of Italian life that both husband and wife are happy to take a lover or a mistress, but neither are willing to contemplate divorce, since neither wishes to upset the equilibrium in which the other lives. The case of the lawyer Pelligrini, esteemed colleague of Avvocato Cassa, who had arrived …
The traffic was in a slow burn, backed up about a hundred metres from the lights to the barracks. Cars drifted in and out of lanes; mopeds cheeked between lines of their own invention, and yet the filter right was still blocked. Finally, the old man lost all patience and started tooting his horn. “Cretini, …