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Overreachers

Richard Ford

‘Madeleine Granville was standing at the hotel window of the Queen Elizabeth II, trying to decide which tiny car far below on Mansfield Street was her yellow Saab’.

The Hotel Capital

Olga Tokarczuk

‘At the same time I take off my exotic language, my strange name, my sense of humour, my face lines, my taste for food not appreciated here, my memory of small events—and I stand naked in this pink and white uniform as if emerging from the sea mist.’

Pronek in History

Aleksandar Hemon

‘This happened on a night train to Linz: swarthy-faced robbers startle Adolf and strip his felt jacket halfway down his arms so he cannot move them (their long nails scratching him just above his elbow)’.

But Richard Widmark

Nik Cohn

‘I ask my wife what she means by kidnap exactly, but she says never mind’.

Whale

Panos Karnezis

‘Whale arrived at work a little after seven with black circles round his eyes’.

The Trout Opera

Matt Condon

‘On the veranda of the Buckley's Crossing Hotel, reclining in dimpled leather armchairs, Judges Carrington and Thorpe observed in silence the giant trout shuffling across the bridge’

The Emotions are not Skilled Workers

Elliot Perlman

‘He is wrong, though. You didn’t read poetry at all. He had wanted you to read poetry but you didn’t.’

The Red Coral Bracelet

Judith Hermann

‘My first and only visit to a therapist cost me my red coral bracelet and my lover.’

Real Time

Amit Chaudhuri

‘He sighed; his wife never satisfied him when he needed her most; and quite probably it was the same story the other way round.’

Aquifer

Tim Winton

‘Through the open window I smelt dead lupin and for a long time forgot my age.’

True History of the Kelly Gang, First Part

Peter Carey

‘I lost my own father at 12 yrs. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences’.

Pobby and Dingan

Ben Rice

“I’m looking for my daughter’s imaginary friends and you’d better bloody well believe it, mate!”

War Work

Frank Moorhouse

‘It was like the voice from a gramophone with a worn needle.’

Mate

Kate Grenville

‘He’d bought the Akubra and the elastic-sided boots but anyone could see he was a city bugger.’