Mailing List


Rebecca Liu
Rebecca Liu is a commissioning editor at Guardian Saturday and a staff writer at Another Gaze.

Articles Available Online


There are only girls on the internet

Book Review

August 2022

Rebecca Liu

Book Review

August 2022

I remember the first time I saw it, like a freshly alert hare alarmed by movement in the distant grasslands. It was 2013. Model...

Book Review

September 2020

Pankaj Mishra’s ‘Bland Fanatics’

Rebecca Liu

Book Review

September 2020

The Anglo-American commentariat is full of lofty egos. Pankaj Mishra has developed a reputation as their great deflater. ‘Watch...

Brian Ed waited outside the ration house Merlijn took his time coming to the door, and opened it slowly Brian Ed raised his hand and waved Merlijn smiled an embarrassed smile and held up four fingers   ‘No rations until four o’clock, Brian Ed’   ‘Yes,’ said Brian Ed He didn’t leave ‘How are you today?’   ‘Oh,’ said Merlijn, his hand on the doorknob ‘I’m well, Brian Ed Thank you for asking’   They stood in silence Brian Ed shrugged All courtesies escaped him His everyday pack squeezed his neck and tore at his shoulders Inside were the children’s book, the old orange balloon – now deflated – that had once read Welcome Refugee!, and the four heavy stones he carried without knowing why, each the size of a baby’s head   ‘Well,’ said Merlijn, patting Brian Ed on the hand ‘See you at four, then’ Brian Ed thrust a long foot forward ‘No,’ he said ‘How is the weather? No snow will come? No avalanche time?’   Merlijn smiled He stepped out of the house and closed the door behind him ‘Brian Ed,’ he said, ‘are you hungry? Can I offer you a peach?’ He cupped his hand as if the peach were already there and held it up to Brian Ed’s mouth ‘Summer is coming Sun The peaches are good No avalanche Let’s walk’   He wasn’t hungry, but it was his own fault if Merlijn thought he was He only ever came to Merlijn for his ration – of food, of clothing, of wood Never had he come for company, not to Merlijn, not to anyone, not once since the poison curtain of war had dropped and travel home had become impossible He’d never dreamed it would last three years Three years was as long as some lives He hadn’t prepared and he hadn’t adjusted He hadn’t learned the words Instead, he’d gone dull in the comfortable glow of the golden cone   Brian Ed followed Merlijn up the hill to the orchard, where peaches and cherries and pears hung huge from their trees, pulsing and oozing like the separate chambers of one metastasising heart This wild growth was one of

Contributor

August 2019

Rebecca Liu

Contributor

August 2019

Rebecca Liu is a commissioning editor at Guardian Saturday and a staff writer at Another Gaze.

Jia Tolentino’s ‘Trick Mirror’

Book Review

August 2019

Rebecca Liu

Book Review

August 2019

Talk about the fates of young professional women today and you will often alight on two themes: the anxieties that come with living in...

READ NEXT

fiction

May 2013

Cabbage Butterflies

Ryū Murakami

TR. Ralph McCarthy

fiction

May 2013

The guy looked disappointed when he saw me. My one sales point is that I’m young, but my eyelids...

Interview

June 2013

Interview with Lars Iyer

David Morris

Interview

June 2013

Like so much of the dialogue that marks time across Lars Iyer’s books, this conversation began in the pub....

fiction

Issue No. 12

A Samurai Watches the Sun Rise in Acapulco

Álvaro Enrigue

TR. Rahul Bery

fiction

Issue No. 12

To Miquel   I possess my death. She is in my hands and within the spirals of my inner...

 

Get our newsletter

 

* indicates required