Boston Review — Fiction

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halfrain

The Ghost of Berries

“If only you could know,” his mother said, “how much this is not blueberry. A real blueberry is plump and juicy as a pinky toe.”

Joe Fassler

fiction

Tayopa

The country is empty and twisting. You could search for a dozen years and not find the mine.
Ben C. Stroud

It’s a Small World

If it hadn’t been for Mickey Mouse, I wouldn’t be alive.
Ariel Dorfman

Pirouette

My dad lived in Belize with a Russian ballerina. They grew chocolate beans before anyone else knew what organic meant.
Scott Marengo

The Piano

The winner of the 2012 Boston Review Aura Estrada short-story contest.
Alexandra Thom
Introduced by Samuel R. Delany

Xochimilco

This is how I will always think of Mammì. Covering my eyes before I can cover hers.
Esmé-Michelle Watkins

The Gulf

In later years I will come to avoid him, but for now, I am eight years old, and the man everyone says is my father is sitting in the living room.
Tania James

Summer of ’76

The Harper brothers acted as if they didn’t see Lola or her car, right in front of them, plain as day.
Phyllis Alexander

Mutts

Duchess, the dog that Jack and his dad brought home, is sitting by the kitchen table in a pair of women’s underpants.
David Riordan

Thirty Seconds From Now

“Something I want you to know about me,” Scott said. “I sense future sights, sounds, whatever while I sense the present.”
John Chu

Aviator on the Prowl

The winner of the 2011 Boston Review Aura Estrada short-story contest.
Kalpana Narayanan
Introduced by Francisco Goldman

The Shunting Trains Trace Iron Labyrinths

I boarded the train and took the last empty seat, by the window. The woman next to me said, “This train goes to the coast.”
Ana Menéndez

You Are Free

Lara Barrows wondered how the woman had gotten her name, and how she’d found her address.
Danzy Senna

Guinea Pig

He’s sitting right in front of me now, a 130-pound Rottweiler named Casey, wearing a black helmet just like the one I’m holding in my hands.
Charles Johnson

Hitting Budapest

There are guavas to steal in Budapest, and right now I’d die for guavas, or anything for that matter. My stomach feels like somebody just took a shovel and dug everything out.
NoViolet Bulawayo

The Moor

The earliest known record of the negro detective Jackson Hieronymus Burke—the Moor—is an advertisement he ran in several Berlin newspapers in 1873, promising discretion and modest fees.
Ben Stroud

From the winner of the Bita Prize in Persian Letters, a story of a girl faced with the violence of the state. (Plus: “My Two Worlds,” Goli Taraghi’s Bita Prize lecture)
Goli Taraghi
translated by Faridoun Farrokh

Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders

“He don’t look like he’s gonna be too talkative tonight–which is a blessin’. Otherwise you’d have to listen to him go on about how you’re goin’ to hell, like me and everybody I know.”
Samuel R. Delany

Congratulations to BR Fiction Editor Junot Díaz on his 2012 MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship.

“His commitment to young writers, to exploring a full range of literary genres, and to socially engaged work keeps our fiction exciting and relevant.” said BR Co-Editor Deborah Chasman.

BR Fiction Editor Junot Díaz discusses Freedom University and paths to citizenship for undocumented immigrants on The Colbert Report.