The pieces in this issue of Granta touch on themes of escape and loss, from Roger Reeves's essay about how to tell, and understand, stories of slavery now, to Annie Ernaux on what affairs can help us bear.Our winter issue features Raymond Antrobus on performer Johnnie Ray, Marina Benjamin on playing professional blackjack, Chanelle Benz on searching for a homeland, Annie Ernaux (tr. Alison L. Strayer) on what affairs can help us bear, Richard Eyre on his grandfathers, Des Fitzgerald on losing his brother, Caspar Henderson on the sounds in space, Amitava Kumar on India today, Emily LaBarge on PTSD, Michael Moritz on antisemitism in Wales, TaraShea Nesbit on coping with a miscarriage, Roger Reeves on visiting a former site of slavery, Xiao Yue Shan on Iceland.Granta 162 will include fiction by Carlos Fonseca (tr. Megan McDowell), Maylis de Kerangal (tr. Jessica Moore) and Catherine Lacey, as well as photography by Kalpesh Lathigra, in conversation with Granta, Cian Oba-Smith, introduced by Gary Younge, and Aaron Schuman, introduced by Sigrid Rausing. Plus a poem by Peter Gizzi.