2024-09-20
35 分钟Ashley Margolis reads Ghost Kitchen by Ross Raisin, the fifth story shortlisted for the 2024 BBC National Short Story Award, followed by an interview with the author on BBC Radio 4's Front Row Podcast presented and produced by Rick Woska
BBC sounds music radio podcasts hello and welcome back to the BBC short story podcast, where this week we have been showcasing the five shortlisted stories for the 2024 BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University.
The final shortlisted story comes from York based author Ross Raisin.
His story, Ghost Kitchen, is narrated from the perspective of Sean, a courier who has sought refuge in the industrial wilderness after a tragic incident.
The story centers around the contrast of the invisibility Sean is able to choose with the fragile existence and lack of opportunities open to fellow worker Hebdo, a migrant he befriends.
The reader is Ashley Margulis.
Ghost Kitchen by Ross Raisin read by Ashley Margolis already he had mastered these streets.
He had also finally mastered the bike, which had been franks and was, in truth, a piece of crap.
And as he rode now onto Museum street, he knew to downshift softly, letting the gears decide for themselves when to catch.
At the crest of the hill, Sean pushed on.
He was two minutes behind.
He moved into the middle of the lane and pedalled harder, nervous energy coursing through him, until, at the end of the street, he was forced to stop.
For a whole minute he waited, watching the slow procession of drivers alone in their cars before the release of the light, when he could slice through the congestion out onto the other side of the ring road.
The roads were at once quieter.
The dark was coming on, but he left his lights in his jacket pocket, not wanting to stop and lose more time attaching them.
The dike was close to here.
He could turn to look down the passageway, where part of it would be visible, but he resisted the impulse.
He glanced at the wristwatch on his handlebar.
Hed gained almost a minute.
Still, he kept up his pace, moving deeper into this untouched part of the city where blue spiked metal fencing ran along the backs of industrial units, a meat wholesaler, a document shredding firm.
The only sound anywhere was the clicking of the front wheel as he slowed, stole around the side of the next warehouse building, and dismounted.