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Vladimir in Love

Lara Vapnyar

‘He regretted not buying the flowers.’

The Mountain Road

William Wall

‘Funeral homes are always cold. There were pine benches in lines like a church. They had been varnished recently and there was that heady smell. It reminded me of my father’s boat, the wheelhouse brightwork newly touched up. It was the smell of childhood.’

The Beacon & The Bane

Malerie Willens

‘In spite of my pining and missing, neither man seemed fully formed and I felt a little lonely in the presence of both.’

The Beauty and the Bat

Diane Williams

‘I knew who she was well enough, by then – a competent woman in earnest who didn’t like me.’

Witchcraft Today

Diane Williams

‘Two women appeared embracing two of a kind – that is each woman held onto a globular lamp base that had luster.’

Reading Comprehension: Text No. 2

Alejandro Zambra

‘Which of the following famous phrases best reflects the meaning of the text?’

Winnie and the Innocence of the World

Joost Zwagerman

‘This is how I became Winnie’s clandestine, outcast and utterly powerless guardian angel.’