Hanif Kureishi: Collected Stories

‘Before they came he said he would never see her again. It was her fault. He was inexperienced and she had seduced him when he was most vulnerable and open to female flattery. He had been a fool — he was human too — but she had been ruthlessly malevolent, evil even, having destroyed his life and ruined the lives of several people.’

‘Indeed.’

‘She was broken by the accusation, having done nothing, she said, but fall passionately and irrevocably in love for the first time in her life. How could that be a crime?’

Jake and Eric returned to their table and Eric asked for the bill. ‘I’ll get this,’ he said.

Jake said, ‘In the morning Julie got on the train back to France.’

‘Jake, what will you do now?’

‘The lawyers have smelled blood, so I made the decision to write to my friends and ask them, outright, for money,’ he said. ‘I’m still working, but I need funds for the train fare to France some weekends where I can stay in a little hotel and spend a few hours with my daughters, in order that they don’t forget me. While I try to get custody I have to survive, otherwise I will be on the street.’

Eric paid the bill and they went outside. They shook hands, Eric put up his umbrella and Jake said, ‘Can we meet again next week, or if that’s too soon for you, the week after? Would that be okay? If I don’t talk there’ll be another death.’

‘Yes, yes, call me any time,’ said Eric.

‘How is your family?’ Jake said.

‘All fine, thanks. My son is becoming rather a good footballer.’

‘You are lucky. You are blessed.’

Eric noticed it was only around ten o’clock when he got back to the house. He locked the door behind him, something he never usually did, and crept in, certain his wife and son would be asleep.He took off his shoes and went upstairs. His wife was indeed asleep, wearing his new pullover, on the edge of the bed, with his son sprawled across the middle. The little space left was occupied by their two cats.

Eric perched on the edge of the bed, looking at them both. Then he opened the curtains so there was sufficient moonlight for him to see to kiss them.

He wondered what Eric would do when he got home — look at photographs of his lost family?

The boy was nine, and he was heavy, but Eric picked him up and carried him to his bed. Then he got into his own bed and stayed awake for as long as he could, listening to his wife’s breathing and waiting for the morning light.

Love in a Blue Time first published by Faber in 1997

‘In a Blue Time’ and ‘With Your Tongue down My Throat’ first appeared in Granta ; ‘We’re Not Jews’ first appeared in the London Review of Books ; ‘D’accord, Baby’ appeared in Atlantic Monthly and the Independent Magazine ; ‘My Son the Fanatic’ first appeared in The New Yorker , and subsequently in New Writing 4 (ed. A. S. Byatt and Alan Hollinghurst); ‘The Tale of the Turd’ appeared in em writing & music and The Word .

Midnight All Day first published by Faber in 1999

The Body first published by Faber in 2002

‘Hullabaloo in the Tree’ first published in the Guardian ; ‘Face to Face with You’ first published in The Black Book ; ‘Goodbye, Mother’ first published in Granta ; ‘Remember This Moment, Remember Us’ first published in Red ; ‘Touched’ first published in The New Yorker

‘The Dogs’ first published in the Guardian in 2004

‘Long Ago Yesterday’ first published in The New Yorker in 2004

‘Weddings and Beheadings’ first published in Zoetrope in 2006

‘The Assault’ first published in the Independent in 2007

Hanif Kureishi was born and brought up in Kent. He read philosophy at King’s College, London. In 1981 he won the George Devine Award for his plays Outskirts and Borderline , and in 1982 he was appointed Writer in Residence at the Royal Court Theatre. In 1984 he wrote My Beautiful Laundrette, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. His second screenplay, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987), was followed by London Kills Me (1991), which he also directed. The Buddha of Suburbia won the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel in 1990 and was made into a four-part drama series by the BBC in 1993. His version of Brecht’s Mother Courage has been produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. His second novel, The Black Album , was published in 1995. With Jon Savage he edited The Faber Book of Pop (1995). His first collection of short stories, Love in a Blue Time , was published in 1997. His story ‘My Son the Fanatic’, from that collection, was adapted for film and released in 1998. Intimacy , his third novel, was published in 1998, and a film of the same title, based on the novel and other stories by the author, was released in 2001 and won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival. His play Sleep With Me premiered at the Royal National Theatre in 1999. His second collection of stories, Midnight All Day , was published in 2000. Gabriel’s Gift , his fourth novel, was published in 2001. The Body and Seven Stories and Dreaming and Scheming , a collection of essays, were published in 2002. His screenplay The Mother was directed by Roger Michell and released in 2003. In 2004 he published his play When the Night Begins and a memoir, My Ear at His Heart. A second collection of essays, The Word and the Bomb, followed in 2005. His screenplay Venus was directed by Roger Michell in 2006. His latest novel, Something to Tell You was published to great critical acclaim in 2008. In 2009 the National Theatre staged an adaptation of his strikingly prescient and acclaimed novel, The Black Album . He has been awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts des Lettres and a CBE for services to literature and his work has been translated into thirty-six languages.