Will independence bring Godzilla back into my dreams?

I haven’t been in Jerusalem for sixteen years and the first thing my friend shows me is the wall that separates them from the Palestinians.

The Borderland Foundation documents borderland culture from its headquarters in the Jewish ghost town of Sejny, Poland.

Why does one culture give a flower a pretty, poetic name, while another culture names it in a seemingly derogatory way?

My friend, who writes poems and stories, tells me in the café that he finds it more and more difficult to deal with the writer inside him.

On a recent trip to Paris, I met a young woman from Japan. But this is not a story about a sudden love affair, which one might expect in Paris.

If a house were a good thing, the wolf would have one.

Walking along the streets of Paris, watching thousands of tourists using their digital cameras, I remember the way my father held his old Kodak when he took photographs.

Walking along the streets of Paris, watching thousands of tourists using their digital cameras, I remember the way my father held his old Kodak when he took photographs.

"She insisted that I write into your will that the funeral must not be held in the rain.""Whose funeral?" I asked."Yours."

David Albahari visits Canadian cities and remembers a slogan from the former Yugoslavia: Get to know your country in order to love her.

Only when I settle down in the back seat of the cab do I notice that on the dashboard there are several stickers with the letter U, the sign of Ustashe. During the Second World War, Ustashe was the ruling party in the Independent State of Croatia. They also had their own army and ran a number of concentration camps where many Serbs, gypsies and Jews were slaughtered.

Some

"I am forever surprised by the fact that time passes more speedily between mountains than it does out on the prairie..."

"She insisted that I write into your will that the funeral must not be held in the rain.""Whose funeral?" I asked."Yours."

"We smoke, sometimes we drink, pop a few pills, eat peanuts, or suck on hard candy." Nine unambiguous short stories by David Albahari.