The Lottery in Babylon

'The drunkard who comes out with an absurd order, the dreamer who suddenly wakes and with his bare hands strangles the woman sleeping beside him - are they perhaps not carrying out one of the Company's secret decisions? These silent workings, so like those of God, give rise to all manner of speculation.' The affairs of Babylon are dictated by a lottery. Discreetly administered by a mysterious and seemingly omnipotent Company, the lottery can elevate citizens to positions of wealth and power or condemn them to the most shameful punishments. Taking this fantastical conceit as its starting point, Jorge Luis Borges's short story is a characteristically brilliant achievement - a haunting mediation on the nature of chance, paranoia and divinity.

Born in Argentina, Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) was one of the most consequential figures in twentieth-century literature. English translations of some of his greatest short works appeared in the 1962 volume Labyrinths.