Telling Tales

Rarely have world writers of such variety and distinction appeared together in the same anthology. Their stories capture the range of emotions and situations of our human universe: tragedy, comedy, fantasy, satire, dramas of sexual love and of war in different continents and cultures. They are not about HIV / AIDS. But all twenty-one writers have given their stories-chosen by themselves as representing some of the best of their lifetime work as storytellers-without any fee or royalty. Telling Tales is being published in more than twelve countries. The publisher''s profits from the sales of this book will go to HIV / AIDS preventive education and for medical treatment for people living with the suffering this pandemic infection brings to our contemporary world. So when you buy this unique anthology of renowned storytellers as a gift or for your own reading pleasure, you are also making a gift to combat the plague of our new millennium. Nadine Gordimer , who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, is the author of fourteen novels, nine volumes of stories, and three nonfiction collections. She lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. This anthology is a literary part of a worldwide effort to raise money for fighting HIV/AIDS. Rarely have world writers of such variety and distinction appeared together in the same anthology. Their stories capture the range of emotions and situations of our human universe: tragedy, comedy, fantasy, satire, dramas of sexual love and of war in different continents and cultures. These tales are not about HIV/AIDS. But all twenty-one writers have given their stories'”chosen by themselves as representing some of the best of their lifetime work as storytellers'”without any fee or royalty. Telling Tales is published in more than twelve countries. The publishers'' profits from the sales of this book go to HIV/AIDS preventive education, and for medical treatment for people living with the suffering this pandemic infection brings to our contemporary world. This unique collection of renowned storytellers is much more than a gathering of great literature; it is a gift to combat the plague of our new millennium. "A stellar roster, including five Nobelists'”Gordimer, Grass, Oe, Marquez, and Saramago'”offers 21 stories in a fundraising effort for HIV and AIDS in southern Africa."'” Kirkus Reviews "The 21 stellar writers in this international short-story collection include five Nobel winners. All the stories were chosen by the writers themselves and contributed without any fee, and all profits go to fight HIV-AIDS in southern Africa. The stories are not about AIDS, but several are about war and about dying. In Njabulo Ndbele''s ''Death of a Son,'' parents fight to get their child''s body from the apartheid police. ''The Ultimate Safari,'' by Gordimer, who edited the anthology, is a searing, unforgettable account of a desperate refugee child hiding from the fancy tourists in a famous game park. In contrast, Woody Allen has contributed his hilarious New Yorker piece lampooning the financier whose kid was turned down by a prestigious Manhattan preschool. There are also fine stories by Margaret Atwood, Hanef Kureishi, Arthur Miller, Salman Rushdie, and more."'” Booklist "A stellar roster, including five Nobelists'”Gordimer, Grass, Oe, Marquez, and Saramago'”offers 21 stories in a fundraising effort for HIV and AIDS in southern Africa. Chinua Achebe''s ''Sugar Baby'' is a razor-edged retrospective look at one man''s inability to adjust to deprivation in the midst of protracted war. Margaret Atwood''s stunning ''The Age of Lead'' juxtaposes the narrator''s watching news reports about a sailor frozen on an ill-fated Arctic expedition with memories of her lifelong friend, bonded since their teens by a desire for a ''life without consequences.'' Now, Vincent is dead at 43 of ''a mutated virus that didn''t even have a name yet'''”the consequence of ''things you don''t even know you''ve done.'' In the powerful ''The Ultimate

Nadine Gardimer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991. The author of thirteen novels, most recently Loot (FSG, 2003), and nine volumes of stories, she lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Bulldog by Arthur Miller

The Centaur by José Saramago

Down the Quiet Street by Es'kia Mphahlele

The Firebird's Nest by Salman Rushdie

Cell Phone by Ingo Schulze

Death Constant Beyond Love by Gabriel García Márquez

The Age of Lead by Margaret Atwood

Witnesses of an Era by Günter Grass

The Journey to the Dead by John Updike

Sugar Baby by Chinua Achebe

The Way of the Wind by Amos Oz

Warm Dogs by Paul Theroux

The Ass and The Ox by Michel Tournier

Death of a Son by Njabulo S. Ndebele

The Letter Scene by Susan Sontag

To Have Been by Claudio Magris

A Meeting, At Last by Hanif Kureishi

Associations in Blue by Christa Wolf
The Rejection by Woody Allen

The Ultimate Safari by Nadine Gordimer

Abandoned Children of This Planet by Kenzaburo Oe

The Contributors

Source Notes