It didn’t occur to me until last Christmas, as I hugged my family goodbye in Washington’s Dulles Airport, that there might have been a better reason for my mother’s adherence ...
My mother would describe her gynecological problems to strangers. I would be trying on a pair of jeans, and I would hear “womb” or “spasm” over the curtain.
Her mother did nothing but shake her head as he’d then barricade her inside that dark tomb for hours.
After sunset, she multiplied and subtracted, structured her existence. She likes the feel of numbers, she can smell them as she counts, taste their shape. In the dark, she weighs ...
I enjoy being inside a character’s head, especially if they’re somewhat unpleasant or difficult to sympathise with. I try my best to draw out the kind of thoughts they would ...
Novelist Kevin Brockmeier has written the second instalment in Litro’s new series of miniature memoir. He’s nine or ten, and he’s looking down on traffic.
A deconstruction of safety and security within Wiley Cash’s latest novel – and our current Litro Book Club pick – This Dark Road to Mercy.
“I couldn’t move home, but maybe I could repay some of their kindness. I knew their stories of Christmas gifts that never arrived, and I knew their current interests. I ...
“When unconscious not all three year olds will convulse. Not all fathers will sink to their knees and whimper as if those lids will never again open on green.”
“The Colonel’s grandson, insisting that it was not unusual for his wife to forego breakfast in favour of sleep, twice succeeded in stopping his grandfather from personally checking and double-checking ...
“I place the incense sticks on the earth in front of each trunk. Normally, I’d count to make sure that no tree gets any more or less. But ...
Alexander Payne returns with another sensitive portrayal of fractured family life
Claire Rodwell explores the broken family unit within Wiley Cash’s This Dark Road to Mercy and the unconventional influence this has on Easter and Ruby’s perception of familial roles.
“At the funeral of a distant relative, you’ll need to be embraced by a big woman in a floral dress, with circular sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat. In her eyes ...
“Once upon a time and once upon a time and once upon a time we were young.”
“Francisca and Juan will move into a house on the hill in Bormla with Duminku’s brothers, Mosè and Abram, his sister Lehla, and Abram’s wife Philumena. In Malta, Francisca and ...
“My son Telep likes to lie on his back in the field behind our house during thunderstorms. He’s been doing it for years.”
“The Manor House bedsit, in contrast to the basic but clean council flat he had shared with Susan and Zoe, revealed a new imperfection, or infestation, every day. First ...
“When I find it I will understand everything. I will know why the sun is hot and the grass whispers, what each number shouts to the next. We will have ...
“If I were honest, her cooking was never good. But Dad ate whatever she cooked, and taught me to appreciate it no matter how it tasted. My face betrays me, ...
