“My birth was hailed not by a single star, but by many bright lights that burned briefly in the night sky before falling to earth. The invasion of the Russian

“Eli wrote every week from the Western Front, until his letters stopped arriving two months ago. His letters dry. His strong handwriting reminds her of his warm presence. Mary’s letters,

“I marvelled at the vastness and flatness and emptiness of the parched red desert floor, the huge void of silence, suspended primordial time; the east–west highway that ran straight for

“I turned about the room, toe to toe, making the smallest circle. What I wanted was not there. His clock, his papers, his quill glass – emptied, cleared, gone. I

“What I find interesting, he says, is that your clothing is all white, like everything we see around us. Even your shoes are white. I thought they were more off-white,

“Now the crowd was in control. Everyone clamoured to hit somewhere, anywhere but the head. A kid pushed through the throng, managed to land a kick on Kamu’s butt and

“Celia, on the other side of town, is kissing the tiny, sweet brown moles which dot her lover’s chin like a constellation. It was a thoughtful play that her lover

“The glade was peculiarly dense around Vogel’s ungated entranceway. Pine, maple, and scrub oak fought for sky. The canopy of the driveway almost totally shut out the light. Only after

“I lay in darkness, unsure of what had stirred me. Sleep still clung to my body, but I was conscious of my whereabouts. Moonlight spilled through the gap in the

“Tristan did not consider himself brave. But then he did not consider himself a coward either. He knew he should have told his parents of his plan but they were

“This period he can picture. If he saunters down to the Thames after his mid-day meal he will see this scene: merchants’ houses, wharves, the unloading of ships. But…the scale,

“A cold breeze blows over my face. Then something warm an’ wet, stinking of damp hair. I open my eyes, slowly, one at a time. Focus. “Ugghh!” I shouts, “gits

“The back of the house beyond has already sunk into obscurity. I do not need to see it to picture it. Where this house is stucco, that one is red

“The annual Christmas present debate was abruptly suspended. Their adored maestro, Walter Albero, PhD, who had originally set out in life intending to be a botanist, could be heard wheeling

“Looking at the calendar of Ravidas, and the photograph beside it of the grandchildren she had yet to meet, she raised the package like a chalice to her wrinkled forehead.

“I should have been in London, not this Essex midden swirling with pigeon-chest men and their gossiping dry-venus wives. I was no fighter, could not read nor write; but by

“In the end they settled on Caroline Rebecca, although Frances didn’t particularly like either name – but Andrew had suggested them, and anyway she couldn’t face thinking of any others. 

Mass graves were discovered in different parts of the country. The buried were exhumed and reburied. Roads were cleansed. Walls were washed to make room for new graffiti. Pakistani tanks,

“So I shrug. Again. No idea what to say. No idea even what to think, which has been exactly the problem since I arrived: I don’t even have to walk

“I remember tiny pin-points of calm when I looked into his eyes. There are moments of unendurable love amid all the blackness. My mother said I was exhausted. The health