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Kashmir

James Buchan

‘I see in an instant what has brought people to the valley for four centuries.’

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.’

Kabir Street

R. K. Narayan

‘Nagaraj had begun to have doubts about his standing in his ancestral home’

Waking

Amit Chaudhuri

‘Her eyes, in a face puffed with sleep, opened, red and unfocused.’

The Enemy Within

John Banville

‘Feeling almost skittish all day. Exhausted now yet feverish also, like a child at the end of a party.’

A Good Man is Hard to Find

Duncan McLean

‘I thought I heard the woman next door crying’

Trying to Understand

Philip Hensher

‘I liked his humourless intelligence, so redundant and so excessive in an MP.’

In a Blue Time

Hanif Kureishi

‘When the phone rings, who do you most want it to be?’

Mother Care

Jayne Anne Phillips

‘After the birth and the overnight in the hospital she didn’t go downstairs for a week.’

Soul Murder

David Mamet

‘The child sat with his head in his hands, rocking back and forth.’

Doctors and Nurses

Blake Morrison

‘Skirtless, jumperless, she lies on the floor, her hair settling about her like a silky parachute.’

Salford, 1924

Leila Berg

‘Yesterday two boys got hold of me in the playground and banged my head against the wall over and over and said “Why did you kill Jesus?”’

Arithmetic Town

Todd McEwen

‘Free play is when you have fun instead of playing kickball.’