Always Fails News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Kate Briggs' last book, 'This Little Art,' memorialized the art of translation. Her first novel, 'The Long Form,' is a paean to maternal and literary love.

—You have never known a Woman’s body! —I have known the body of my mother, sick and then dying. Roland Barthes, Mourning Diary I learned the news of my mother’s death on Facebook. I had left her the day before, tiny swimmer in an Olympic-sized hospice bed. Her parched mouth was open, but her breathing was wet. When I kissed her forehead, she smelled salty, sweet—a sticky, human smell. I read the news of her death sitting in Pearson airport, stress eating a hamburger. I was heading back to stupid London, where I had a stupid job interview I was not prepared for. When I had kissed my...