Granta 168

<p><b><i>Granta</i>''<span>s summer issue is devoted to fictions of the ‘other’. ‘Significant other’ calls up the anodyne invitation from a host who wishes to strip away presumption. But we insist it is a fertile concept. Some significant others we know for much of our lives; others are meteoric: we may see them only once.</span></b></p><p>Fiction includes J.M. Coetzee’s story, ‘The Museum Guard,’ Victor Heringer’s ‘Lígia,’ and “Armance” by Fleur Jaeggy. Introducing new fiction from Sophie Collins, Kevin Brazil, and Alexandra Tanner.</p><p>Non-fiction features Mary Gaitskill’s ''The Pneuma Method’, James Pogue on the mines of Mauritania, and Susan Pedersen on paranormal love in the Balfour family. Christian Lorentzen appraises Daniel Sinykin’s <i>Big Fiction</i>. Snigdah Poonam follows a teenager who makes a pilgrimage to Ayodhya, where the BJP’s Hindu nationalists have built their dream temple of Ram.</p><p>Poetry by Najwan Darwish, Zoë Hitzig, Tamara Nassar and Bernadette Van-Huy. Plus photography by Rosalind Fox Solomon (introduced by Lynne Tillman), Jesse Glazzard (introduced by Anthony Vahni Capildeo) and Debmalya Ray Choudhuri (introduced by John-Baptiste Oduor).</p>