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The Dreamed

Robert McLiam Wilson

‘His life needed more magic. Or more God.’

Give it up for Billy

Edmund White

‘Were there moral cataracts that one could remove?’

Aquifer

Tim Winton

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

Hawk

Joy Williams

‘As regards to life it is much the best to think that the experiences we have are necessary for us.’

Telling Him

Edmund White

‘The worst thing about knowing he was positive was that now he was under an obligation to tell his partners. Not that he informed the man he picked up in the park or the guy he lured over on the phone chatline.’

Future Shock

Kate Wheeler

‘Althea's neck strained. Her black, small eyes shifted swiftly, blinked, then fixed evilly on Ingrid.’

Home is Here Now

David Xiao

‘I told June that the woman they uncovered was not our daughter.’

The Penitenitary

Tim Willocks

‘A million man-years of confinement had burnished the surface of the granite flags to a greasy smoothness ingrained deeply with filth and despair.’

Memorial

Tobias Wolff

‘B.D. carried certain objects.’

The Poetics of Sex

Jeanette Winterson

‘My lover Picasso is going through her Blue Period. In the past her periods have always been red.’

The Cells, Tissues, Systems and Cavities of the Body

Jeanette Winterson

‘You were a coat of many colours wrestled into the dirt.’

The Great Santa

Geoffrey Wolff

‘The Great Santa, like circumstance itself, blew hot and cold; He was all caprice, chance, crapshoot.’

Epistle to the New Age

Gore Vidal

‘I’m Bishop of Macedonia, as you will know in time if you are not lucky enough to be in time already.’

What Remains

Christa Wolf

‘The coffee has to be strong and hot, filtered; the egg not too soft; home-made preserves; black bread.’