This GRANTA issue is only marginally devoted to raw, pure sex and should cater to many tastes. "Tokyo Island" by the awesome Japanese woman novelist Natsuo Kirino evokes a fairy tale world of two waves of shipwrecked people stranded on an uninhabited, lush tropical island. Kiyoko is the only female in a population of 30+ Japanese and Chinese men called Tokyoites and Hong Kongers. They don't mix, divide the island between them and evolve in different directions, with Kiyoko always on their mind. Also a parable for Japan and China's economic performance in recent years.Soft(?) porno is offered in a uniquely-structured declaration of love/short story in Emmanuel Carrère's "This is For You". The fictional author/journalist of the story is a love-struck control freak who has been planning the publication of his ode to his loved one several months ahead, to coincide with her traveling on a Saturday afternoon in July on a high speed train towards him, with her choosing "Le Monde" with its weekend edition with short story supplement (circulation 600.000) as her natural choice of entertainment during the journey. Could it be filmed?At least three stories deal with gay-hood, its discovery, full blast enjoyment, and fears of a sad and lonely aftermath. Alan Founds' portrait of a moody, confused and rather nasty vicar in a London suburb is intriguing and perfectly written. For me, Mark Doty's title "The Unwriteable", a coming-out story, summarizes it all. The charm, glory, joy, fulfillment of gay-hood cannot ever be conveyed through writing to non-gays.Tom McCarthy's story "The Spa" is about constipation, not sex, at least not until the end. Its victim is a male English adolescent in an old Central European spa town brimming with centuries of violent history. it is an excerpt from a forthcoming novel called "C", which I will have to inspect upon publication. His and Mr. Founds' story really evoke sharp smells, sounds, images to an almost cinematographic degree. Finally, Brian Chikwava's story of post-independence Zimbabwe, its music and graphically-sexual new dance forms, describes with love and humour, and then, with near-certainty that this wave of creativity accelerated the arrival of another disaster. Very rich volume, not to be missed.