Dogs of war
How clever these creatures, able to distinguish between the sound of planes that unleash havoc and so should be hidden...
In praise of senseless, eternal kindness
Another plea by Grossman for uncomplicated, unplanned and even unwitnessed kindnesses, as opposed to those commandeered by ideologies.
Whatever your...
It’s New Year’s Day – call someone!
This made me laugh on the one hand – a funny image to receive a phone call from a dog...
Of time and mind
A beautiful story about a Jewish school teacher in a town subjected to Nazi massacre. Rosenthal defends his right to...
As simple as…
A simile that deserves to enter daily use. But was Newton’s thought simple? Yes and no…
‘… as simple as...
Authenticity as iron
Authenticity as something to be cherished in itself will come into its own in a world apparently awash with fake...
The happiest time of life
Listening time: 3 minutes. A beautiful description of the sheer, unbounded joy of being alive in a...
Bandy-legged mongrel
This is from a wonderful fictional account of the (real) first dog sent into space by the Soviets. Her life...
Mule meets Hamlet
Grossman has a wonderful capacity to imagine the minds and feelings of animals, and while chronicling the horrors of man's...
Bright eyes like glass grapes
‘Bright eyes’ implies a warm, sparkling, engaging personality until you slam up against ‘rather like glass grapes’, and then you...
The kernel of human kindness
Having been caught between the colliding tectonic plates of two totalitarian systems, it is easy to see how Grossman saw...
Cast-iron sun
A surprising image, as if the sun itself were cast in Vulcan's smithy, a great sizzling shield of liquified iron.
...
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