A stunning collection of new fiction previously published as The Decameron Project and originally commissioned by The New York Times Magazine as the COVID-19 pandemic first spread across the world, from twenty-nine authors including Margaret Atwood, Tommy Orange, Edwidge Danticat, Rachel Kushner, Colm TĂłibĂn, Charles Yu, and more.
When reality is surreal, only fiction can make sense of it...
In 1353, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote The Decameron: one hundred nested tales told by a group of young men and women passing the time at a villa outside Florence while waiting out the gruesome Black Death, a plague that killed more than 25 million people. Some of the stories are silly, some are bawdy, some are like fables.
In March 2020, the editors of The New York Times Magazine worked to create a collection of stories written just as the pandemic first swept the globe. How might new fiction from some of todayâs finest writers help us memorialize and understand the unimaginable? And what could be learned about how this crisis will affect the art of fiction?
These Stories from Quarantine by twenty-nine authors vary widely in texture and tone. The work is a historical tribute to a moment unlike any other in our lifetimes, offering perspective and solace to the reader now and in the uncertain future.
Table of Contents:
âPrefaceâ by Caitlin Roper
âIntroductionâ by Rivka Galchen
âRecognitionâ by Victor LaValle
âA Blue Sky Like Thisâ by Mona Awad
âThe Walkâ by Kamila Shamsie
âTales from the LA Riverâ by Colm TĂłibĂn
âClinical Notesâ by Liz Moore
âThe Teamâ by Tommy Orange
âThe Rockâ by Leila Slimani
âImpatient Griseldaâ by Margaret Atwood
âUnder the Magnoliaâ by Yiyun Li
âOutsideâ by Etgar Keret
âKeepsakesâ by Andrew OâHagan
âThe Girl with the Big Red Suitcaseâ by Rachel Kushner
âThe Morningsideâ by TĂ©a Obreht
âScreen Timeâ by Alejandro Zambra
âHow We Used to Playâ by Dinaw Mengestu
âLine 19 Woodstock/Glisanâ by Karen Russell
âIf Wishes Was Horsesâ by David Mitchell
âSystemsâ by Charles Yu
âThe Perfect Travel Buddyâ by Paolo Giordano
âAn Obliging Robberâ by Mia Couto
âSleepâ by Uzodinma Iweala
âPrudent Girlsâ by Rivers Solomon
âThat Time at My Brotherâs Weddingâ by Laila Lalami
âA Time of Death, The Death of Timeâ by JuliĂĄn Fuks
âThe Cellarâ by Dina Nayeri
âOrigin Storyâ by Matthew Baker
âTo the Wallâ by Esi Edugyan
âBarcelona: Open Cityâ by John Wray
âOne Thingâ by Edwidge Danticat