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The White Hole of Bombay

Nicholas Shakespeare

‘If you like people who hate each other, it’s paradise.’

Estonia, Out in the Country

Ingo Schulze

‘I didn’t believe my eyes, not even when I saw what was happening in front of them.’

Marriage Lines

Julian Barnes

‘Grief was in charge of him.’

May We Be Forgiven

A.M. Homes

‘Now I understand the meaning of — it just happened. Or — it was an accident.’

Broken Star

Jennifer Haigh

‘I’d never heard her say an unkind word about anybody.’

The Virgin of Esmeraldas

Nell Freudenberger

‘Everything was okay until Marisol accidentally broke a china cup with a rose on it that her stepmother had brought with her from DR.’

Which Reminded Her, Later

Jon McGregor

‘It's the desperate ones who come up with the best stories.’

Tree Thieves

Josh Weil

‘The jungle was all stillness, time kept only by the markings of his breath.’

In the Country

Tessa Hadley

‘She wondered if she would have the audacity, when the time came, to let herself go like that.’

Wheels of Progress

Gemini Wahhaj

‘Now Bangladesh survives only on aid, on other people feeding its people.’

On Monday Last Week

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

‘Kamara had always resented the glamour of half-castes.’

Scan

Helen Simpson

‘Since last week's diagnosis she had herself fallen out of time.’

The Last of The Smokers

Jackie Kay

‘Smoking is my first erotic memory.’

Agamemnon’s Truth

Javier Cercas

‘My name is Javier Cercas, just like you.’