Granta 129: Fate (Magazine of New Writing) (Granta: The Magazine of New Writing)

As the book description says, the contributions to this edition relate to the role of fate in life, in its various manifestations. There is the usual eclectic mix of fiction, prose and poetry. There are some excellent contributions: short pieces by Sasa Stanisic and Joseph Roth, as well as a moving poem by Barbara Ras are my own personal favourites. But there are a number of short fiction pieces that are frankly disappointing - tales by Miranda July, Fatima Bhutto and Sam Coll may appeal to others, but I struggled to really get much from them. And there is a long poem by Adam Fitzgerald which I read twice and am still not sure what's it all about; but perhaps that's just me and my specific tastes! The prize for the most original idea goes to Will Self, who used JG Ballard's old manual typewriter to produce a Self/Ballard meditation on the writer's last days. I see that Granta 130 will be edited by Ian Jack, who produced some wonderful Granta editions 10 or 20 years ago; I look forward to reading this in January 2015.