Daniel Hahn

'The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.' - William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the deaths of William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes, And Other Stories and Hay Festival have selected twelve contemporary international authors to each write an original and previously unpublished story as their tribute to these giants of world literature. In order to celebrate the international...

"I don't expect anyone to believe me," warns the narrator of this novel, a Mexican student called Juan Pablo Villalobos. He is about to fly to Barcelona on a scholarship when he's kidnapped in a bookshop and whisked away by thugs to a basement. The gangsters are threatening his cousin-a wannabe entrepreneur known to some as "Projects" and to others as "dickhead"-who is gagged and tied to a chair. The thugs say Juan Pablo must work for them. His mission?...

"Cauã and Inaê are a brother and sister who live in a small community along the Tapajós River in Brazil. Here, the homes are on stilts and everyone travels around by boat-even to school! When the rainy season comes, they must leave their village and relocate to higher ground for a while. But after moving this year, Cauã and Inaê realize they've left behind something important: their pet tortoise, Titi! Unlike turtles, tortoises can't swim, and...

"Simpatía is set in the Venezuela of Nicolas Maduro amid a mass exodus of the intellectual class who have been leaving their pets behind. Ulises Kan, the protagonist and a movie buff, receives a text message from his wife, Paulina, saying she is leaving the country (and him). Ulises is not heartbroken but liberated by Paulina's departure. Two other events end up disrupting his life even further: the return of Nadine, an unrequited love from the past,...

Little dog George isn't sure about the new kitten that appears in their home. George sniffs Tao, they look at each other, they wag and wave their tails. Then they start to play. George and Tao are best friends! But George is too excited and Tao gets hurt. Now Tao is gone. George looks everywhere, then waits-all morning, all afternoon, all night. Will Tao come home? George's overenthusiastic friendship comes to a sudden stop, turns to worry, a long...

"Introduces a colorful cast of characters whose fates are connected in different ways, exploring the importance of kindness and the dangers of greed"--

"As João tucks under a lovingly woven quilt, he asks himself: So it's just me now? He curls up, getting cozy in bed, and soon the world of his dreams unspools on the page. The blanket in his bed unravels into deep rivers, lakes, valleys, reservoirs, mountain ranges, fishing nets full of tadpoles and gaping holes, until what's left is just one long thread. When he feels alone and scared in the dark, João "sews words like patchwork" into a new blanket...

My brother is adopted, but I can't say and don't want to say that my brother is adopted. If I say this, if I speak these words that I have long taken care to silence, I reduce my brother to a single categorical condition, a single essential attribute... A young couple, involved in the struggle against the military dictatorship in 1970s Argentina, must flee the country. The brutality and terror of the regime is closing in around them. Friends are...

"What is a dream? Why do we dream? How do our bodies and minds use dreams? These questions are the starting point for this unprecedented, astonishing study of the role and significance of dreams, from the beginning of human history. It is an investigation on the grand scale, encompassing literature, anthropology, religion, and science, one that articulates the essential place dreams occupy in human culture, and how they functioned as the catalyst...

Known and celebrated in Brazil and abroad for his novel Resistance, Julìn Fuks returns to his auto-fictional alter-ego Sebastìn in a narrative alternating between the writer's conversations with refugees occupying a building in downtown Ŝo Paulo, his father's sickness, and his wife's pregnancy. With impeccable prose, the author builds associations that go beyond the obvious, not only between glimpsing a life's beginning and end, but also between...