![Christopher Hitchens: The Great Contrarian](https://www.tbr-olderissues.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/hitchens-470x140.jpg)
Akshay Sreevatsa ponders over Christopher Hitchens and his book, Letters to a Young Contrarian
![To Wait and Not See Nothing: Tor Ulven’s Unheard Language](https://www.tbr-olderissues.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ULVEN-470x140.jpg)
Atharva Panditon writes on Tor Ulven, the modernist Norwegian poet who has commanded respect and considerable influence over contemporary Norwegian poetry, and yet, hitherto remains largely unknown in English-language literature.
![Move Forward](https://www.tbr-olderissues.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/CHERRYCHAN-470x140.jpg)
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to the opening night of Operap, the musical experiment. I am Coby Sunders, the producer of the show. I am also…
![The Myth and the Miserable](https://www.tbr-olderissues.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/gitanjali-470x140.jpg)
I was in love with a mythical creature for the longest time. I didn’t meet her by the sea; she wasn’t washed ashore by a…
![All the Love in the World](https://www.tbr-olderissues.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/rosen-470x140.jpg)
The year after she left, my mother visited our house in San Diego only twice. The first time, she came with a U-haul truck and…
![Unforgotten](https://www.tbr-olderissues.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ghosh-470x140.jpg)
It was the day before Christmas in Calcutta. It was 1997, and the city, like its name, still retained much of its old world charm….
![Insignia](https://www.tbr-olderissues.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ranjani-470x140.jpg)
a leaf has come to the door
so bend the ear to whence we
reinvented ourselves through
curlicues of air,
![From the Beginning](https://www.tbr-olderissues.com/wp-content/themes/oxygen/images/archive-thumbnail-placeholder.gif)
Did you exist in God’s mind from the beginning?
Persisting as light that shined from the beginning?
![Letters to Federico](https://www.tbr-olderissues.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/sahana-470x140.jpg)
Your initial lines still as unreadable,
Final lines just as your self,
How your words had gradually
Ascended
Into your overwhelming sense of
Shame, sorrow, and fire.
![Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov](https://www.tbr-olderissues.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/readingroom-470x140.jpg)
Every month, The Reading Room showcases a short story, or excerpts of a book, from some of the greatest writers the world has ever seen.