VQR Online

This issue owes its origins to a day—last Easter, in fact—spent watching the cable news networks report on the fatal shooting of three Somali pirates who had kidnapped Richard Phillips, captain of the MV Maersk Alabama.

Mustafa al-Farkhani stops outside the closed gate of the Tijaniyya shrine in Tetouan, Morocco, and holds a finger to his lips. His eyes go dim as he places his ear against the whitewashed limestone wall of the house that abuts the shrine.

Staff picks from the past year.

Vanessa Gould’s documentary casts origami as an art form coming of age with a wide range of immensely complex constructions.

While here are only two freestanding book reviews in this fair country, we do have a wealth of best book lists. Here is a meta-list: The Best of the Best Books of 2009.

In the United States wets and drys are unable to agree about alcohol. In the Valley of the Nile it is water that keeps England and Egypt from coming to an understanding.

Maybe the publication of Ford County means that short stories are making a comeback.

For this market to work, it’ll take a great effort from both The Atlantic and Amazon. (Oh, and $3.99 for a short story? Really?)