In I Who Have Never Known Men, which was republished in a revised translation in 2022, Harpman’s eerie prescience was on full display in a tale about 39 women and a girl held for decades in a bunker for reasons never made clear to them. The book, which was first published in 1995 in the […]
Sofia Mendoza injures her sister (after accidentally-on-purpose tripping her), so her father sends her to Forestjaw to reflect on her behavior. Things get off to a weird start: Monarch, Forestjaw’s leader and seemingly only real adult, greets the campers (or “candidates,” as she calls them) with a terrifying mechanical vulture on her shoulder before confiscating […]
As World War II winds down in 1945, Commander M.T. Kwan returns from serving with the British to his war-ravaged hometown of Guilin, China. As the Japanese pull back, Kwan—aka The Dragon—hopes to retrieve his family from where they’ve taken refuge farther inland. Colonel Lindsay Ride, his commandant with the British Army Aid Group, shows […]
Pedrito explains to younger sister Pipay that they’re going to celebrate Undas, “when families visit the cemetery and gather around their dead loved ones’ tombs.” This is typically celebrated on the first and second day of November during All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. Pipay innocently asks if they’re still a family without their […]
Born Ilich Ramírez Sánchez in Venezuela, Carlos was just one of the countless fake names that “the Jackal” used. It was the one that stuck and the one that he used in Warrick’s opening episode, when Carlos and crew attacked a meeting of OPEC ministers in Vienna in 1975. Just whom he was working for […]
The story begins with Wifredo Lam’s childhood in a small Cuban village, where he shared a home with seven older siblings, his Chinese Cuban papá, and his African-Taíno-Spanish-Cuban mamá. His papá’s calligraphy work and his godmother’s Santería ceremonies formed the first major influences on the budding artist, whose predilection for sketching and drawing arose at […]
A narrating chameleon who has quite a high opinion of himself doesn’t appreciate his camouflage capability: “I am a KING! But how can I command a king’s respect…when color-changing skin makes me so tricky to detect?!” The chameleon proceeds to regale readers with a series of springy rhymes that offer hints about his location in […]
On the eve of his Full Horn Ceremony, young faun Panmiel is playing in the forest when he meets Hobkin, a satyr. They spend the day together, learning about their differences, but also their similarities. Despite being told all his life that satyrs are evil, Pan can’t help but see Hobkin as a friend who […]
After a passel of animal musicians pass through the forest, a wandering cricket finds an abandoned violin. “Oh, how practical! A house that can play music. I’m moving in.” During the day she makes pottery and noodles, but by evening she plays wonderful tunes that entrance the other insects and small animals. All is well […]
An unseen narrator who has a story to tell is also tasked with keeping all the participants’ contributions “nice, polite, and appropriate for kids.” Five animals assemble, along with a talking taco, a tan-skinned pirate, and a pale-skinned child astronaut. But as the narrator explains the guidelines (“I want us all to agree you will […]