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Coming down from the Mountains

Reinaldo Arenas

‘There is nothing to be heard now; just, in the darkness, the racket of the victrolas in Loma Colorada barrio, and the organ lording it over all the other noises.’

That First Time

Christopher Coake

‘Everything, even the ground under his feet, felt impermanent.’

Under Ice

Iain Banks

‘Andy runs out across the ice.‘

The Falcon

Gilad Evron

‘He once called Gihon a limb of his own body.’

The Blood Drip

Brian Evenson

‘They had stumbled upon a town and tried to approach it, but had been driven off with stones.’

Parrot

Peter Carey

‘You might think, who is this, and I might say, this is God, and what are you to do?’

Emma Bovary’s Eyes

Julian Barnes

‘Her eyes are black: passion and depth. Her eyes are green: wildness and jealousy. Her eyes are brown: reliability and ordinariness. Her eyes are violet: the novel is by Raymond Chandler.‘

Menudo

Raymond Carver

‘Vicky says I’m crazy. She said worse things too last night. But who could blame her?’

Honk Honk to Udvada

Chandrahas Choudhury

‘Oh Uncle, it’s such a historical day,’ said Zahra. ‘The eight hundredth anniversary of our arrival in India after we faced so much persecution in Iran, and we’re going to such a big bash, and all you can think about is emus. What will Dr Billimoria think of our family?’

Taken Out of Context

Paul Beatty

‘I’d never been in a room full of black people unrelated to me before.’

Sitting on Top of the World

T. Coraghessan Boyle

‘It was like floating untethered, drifting with the clouds, like being cupped in the hands of God.’

Five Hours to Simla

Anita Desai

‘He had his hands deep in his pockets, and his face was lined with a frown deeply embedded with dust.’

The Wall

Jurek Becker

‘That afternoon a different soldier is standing at the gate. He calls out something that sounds dangerous.’

Leila in the Wilderness

Nadeem Aslam

‘It was almost involuntary: it felt like falling, or like rising in a dream.’