Extracts

When Merl Perlman reads about the murder in Saturday’s paper, she has an uneasy feeling that she might know the victim.

In the days since Dan leaving, and her mother dying, Lila has developed a series of strategies to get through each day.

It’s a message to the Everly family group chat from my father.

What if I jumped?

The house looked like any other house and the door looked like any other door. Normal.

How to make comparison constructive

I checked my horoscope this morning (Aquarius), like I do every day.

I kiss my wife on the lips. Her breath smells of last night’s toothpaste mixed with sleep.

“Daddy, what’s an ‘eejit’?”

Waste not, want not.

I was born dead.

It was a perfect day for walking. The morning had broken and washed the sky in technicolour; palest lemon blending into brazen orange and deep, dark ochre.

Winter was an unforgiving time on Holy Island.

We Are All More Than Our Self-Doubts

THREE AND A HALF YEARS EARLIER

Economics is mass psychology.

Picture this. I’m a guest on a private island in the British Virgin Islands.