‘Thank You’ by Alejandro Zambra, translated by Megan McDowell 

I find I don’t want to tell you anything at all about this one – just encourage you to go on the journey. 

I can tell you that, on the strength of this story, I went and read the whole of My Documents – the collection it comes from – and, although no other story in the collection affected me quite like this one, I thought the whole thing was great, and two other stories from it I particularly like are ‘Camilo’ and ‘Family Life’.

First published in Spanish in Mis documentos in 2013. Also in 2013, Megan McDowell’s English translation of the story was first published on vice.com. Her translation of the whole collection – My Documents, in English – then came out in 2015. The story was available on vice.com until recently, and seems like it’s meant to be still, only there’s a problem with the webpage. Happily, it’s also available on The Short Story Project website