literalab

The November 2021 issue of the Bosphorus Review of Books features my short story, “The Underwater City”. Read it here

“And may I ask where the present-day annihilators of your history happen to come from?” Aaron asked with ill-concealed irony.Gregor, in mid-sip, didn’t need to wait to speak to provide an answer. With apologetic eyes peering over the rim of his glass he pointed at the two of us. Seeing this the waiter scurried over […]

When I was 17 years old and deciding where to go to college I went on a visit to the University of Miami because I was considering studying at their music school. The sight of white cork-lined practice rooms that looked like jail cells made me a bit uneasy from the outset, but it was […]

Potemkin had built his legendary villages to be viewed from a distance as the Empress passed by in her carriage. They were meant to be merely glanced at, for effect, like a neon sign or a fashion model, and were created accordingly. But what if the Empress decides to leave the designated path, what if […]

A Fairy Tale (part 1) by Michael Stein Is it possible to have lived in a time so far back, so ancient, that fairy tales would be science fiction and Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella too futuristic to be believed ? Imagine the situation: a storyteller goes among the nomadic peoples for whom we almost never […]

In one version of the story of Samson, although still shorn of his locks and God-given strength, he is able to elude his Philistine captors. Delilah’s perfidy proves only half successful, leaving our hero with a dilemma that the original version neatly does away with. Unable to fight, let alone subdue lions with his bare […]