In late January the bodies started to come up. It was a bad El Niño, the worst we could remember. The streets turned into rivers, uprooting anything that couldn’t hold on—fenceposts, shrubs, orange Road Closed signs eddying miles from their posts. The government coordinated sand bag giveaways at the animal shelter and American …

    He and Mum move to a bungalow in Rottingdean, better known as Boring On Sea. Dad sports oiled-wool sweaters and jaunty caps, grows a white-bristled beard like Captain Birdseye. ‘I’d like to have been a lighthouse keeper,’ he says. ‘A wicky.’ Every time I visit, they’ve become more maritime: a coiled mooring line …

  Mel woke up one Saturday, mentally preparing for the usual supermarket trip with Mum. If they were good, they might be able to get a comic and either Smarties or Fruit Pastilles, though Mel always chose Fruit Pastilles as they lasted longer. She would lick off the sugar and then spend ages dissolving the …

  Lies I told my mother at 8:03 this morning when she called on my drive to school: Yep, I’ve given up red meat just like you said. What a coincidence—Wordle in three for me too. Sorry, I need to go, I’m getting another call. Lies I told my students at 10:42 this morning when …

    Hunga sprinted towards the bamboo thicket with his knife. The grove of lean yellow bamboo culms covered with green leafy hats whistled in the wind. His hands moved fast, browsing through the stems to find the thinnest ones. He cut out a bunch of them and ran towards the village. The tiny mud …

    The unsold Phantasia Pro 12s were neatly stacked in a box on the loading dock, last year’s model destined for a local landfill east of the river. Martin glanced up from the packing slip. “Hey, Josh. Is it all right if I take one of the old 12s?” “Whoa, that’s a big negative, …

    It was so easy for no one to know. I thought they would see it in my face. It happened in the morning, and when we were called into the beach house from the pool for dinner, I thought my mother would look at me and know right away, scoop me up into …