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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.’

Sluts

Susan Swan

‘It was Tom’s contention that you could spot a slut by the colour of her complexion.’

Eternal Love

Karen E. Bender

‘After Lena and Bob were married in the Chapel of Eternal Love, Ella told them that new husbands and wives were not allowed to share a hotel bedroom.’

Integration

Sherman Alexie

‘Anonymous cries up and down the hallways. Linoleum floors swabbed with gray water. Mop smelling like old sex.’

Looking for the General

Madison Smartt Bell

‘Midday, and the sun thrummed from the height of its arc so that the lizard seemed to cast no shadow.’

Orno and Marshall

Ethan Canin

‘Marshall was unlike anyone Orno had ever met before. He was able to converse with Mr and Mrs Pboson as though he was of their own generation.’

The Revenant

Edwidge Danticat

‘Doctor Berto came with a new stethoscope to check Victoria’s heart. He was shocked to learn that she had died.’

Burning Mary

Tom Drury

‘Paul Emmons was a college student with no money behind him and none in front and so he seemed immune from trouble.’

Birthday Boy

Tony Earley

‘During the night something like a miracle happened: Jim's age grew an extra digit.’

The Speed of Sperm

Jeffrey Eugenides

‘I was born twice: once, as a baby girl, at 4.53 a.m. on a remarkably unpolluted Detroit day in 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in the offices of our family physician, Dr Arnold Philobosian, in 1976.’