Mailing List


Aaron Peck
Aaron Peck is the author of The Bewilderments of Bernard Willis and Letters to the Pacific.

Articles Available Online


The Abyss Echoes Back: Judith Schalansky’s ‘An Inventory of Losses’

Book Review

January 2021

Aaron Peck

Book Review

January 2021

Early in Judith Schalansky’s An Inventory of Losses, the narrator describes the way an ancient form of writing survived oblivion. The soft clay tablets...

Book Review

May 2018

Harry Mathews’s ‘The Solitary Twin’

Aaron Peck

Book Review

May 2018

Imagine a small fishing village on the edge of the world. Its inhabitants are progressive and content. The surroundings...

Will you take the garbage when you go out? My wife said this without turning from the sink where she was washing the dishes from breakfast It’s in the hall You’ll see it as you go Of course, I said Don’t I always? Her back remained impassive and she did not reply Her hair was still matted from sleep and she was in her bathrobe I leaned forward to kiss her on the cheek She jerked away and muttered something about not having brushed her teeth, about splashing the hot water   I withdrew and went into the hall The children were playing on the floor in the living room The youngest was in his diaper It was already October and he should have been in a romper, he should have been wearing some kind of clothing Instead, he sat nearly naked on the dirty carpet, his diaper heavy with urine, while his sister wore nothing more than thin pajamas   They looked up when I passed and I raised my hand in greeting They were conspiratorial in a way that gave them an air of unlikely dignity After scrutinising me for a long moment, they resumed their playing The baby was beginning to crawl He lay sprawled out on his stomach, waving his arms and legs ineffectually Behind me, I could hear my wife scouring the pots and pans, the gush of hot water from the tap I picked up the garbage bag and walked down the hall Bye, I called out, as the door closed   The bag was heavy, its contents soft and shifting, as though it contained liquid I caught a whiff of cooking oil and I worried that the bag might burst as I carried it down the stairs, already the plastic was stretching thin at the neck I picked it up and carried it in my arms in order to avoid an accident It was awkward carrying it down like this, I could not see past its bulk, and several times I almost stumbled as I descended the first flight of stairs   We lived on

Contributor

May 2017

Aaron Peck

Contributor

May 2017

Aaron Peck is the author of The Bewilderments of Bernard Willis and Letters to the Pacific.

Gloria

fiction

May 2017

Aaron Peck

fiction

May 2017

Bernard, whenever he thought of Geoffrey, would remember his gait on the afternoon of their first meeting. Geoffrey walked with the confidence of a...

READ NEXT

poetry

November 2012

Mr Minotaur

Simon Pomery

poetry

November 2012

Hey Mr Minotaur, so red, so neatly hunchbacked on account of your thick neck, ready to headbutt victims to...

feature

January 2017

Take Comfort

Heather Radke

feature

January 2017

I. One week after Buzz and Heather broke up, she dragged her mattress into her living room. She moved...

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....

 

Get our newsletter

 

* indicates required