Book excerpt: Granta's spring issue, guest-edited by award-winning writer Rana Dasgupta, explores membranes of the tissue, self, collective, nation, species and cosmos. It features new poetry by Andrew McMillan, Tishani Doshi and Ida Brjel, a new translation of Vladimir Mayakovsky by Ilya Kaminsky and Katie Farris, as well as photography from Anita Khemka, Arturo Soto and Mnica de la Torre. Granta 151: Membranes showcases cutting-edge fiction from Lydia Davis, Fatin Abbas, Steven Heighton, J. Robert Lennon, Mahreen Sohail and Chloe Wilson, plus a host of thought-provoking essays: - Emanuele Coccia on birth, metamorphosis and the very strange miracle of life - Mark Doty on gentrification and homelessness in New York City - Anouchka Grose on infidelity and the idea of the unwanted third - Ruchir Joshi on all those kids his son once was - Kapka Kassabova on Lake Ohrid - Anita Roy on the great crested newt - Esther Woolfson on the relationship between humans and animals Plus: Eyal Weizman in conversation with Rana Dasgupta, on contemporary architectural strategies for repelling and dividing people.