From Left Curve: No. 31. Berger’s most recent work of fiction, From A to X, is out this month from Verso. His “Portrait of a Masked Man” appeared in the April issue of Harper’s Magazine.

The dead surround the living. The living are the core of the dead. In this core are the dimensions of time and space. What surrounds the core is timelessness.

Between the core and its surroundings there are exchanges, which are not usually clear. All religions have been concerned with making them clearer. The credibility of religion depends upon the clarity of certain unusual…