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Proofs

George Steiner

‘Now the burn seemed to smart behind his eyes.’

Time’s Arrow (Part Three): The Conclusion

Martin Amis

‘Your shoulder blades still jolted to the artillery of the Russians as they scurried eastward.’

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.’

Plastic

Graham Swift

‘Sorting out the world! He should have sorted out himself and his own jeopardized household.’

In Summer Camps

Jayne Anne Phillips

‘The sky burned white to blond to powder to an almighty blue; the sun fell unobstructed.’

Some are Born to Sweet Delight

Nadine Gordimer

‘She stopped where she was; sourness was in her mouth and nose, oozing towards the foreign stranger, she mustn’t go a step nearer.’

The Ramada Inn at Shiloh

Allan Gurganus

‘I think Lincoln's face predicted the twentieth century.’

Cork

William Boyd

‘We never love anyone. Not really. We only love our idea of another person.’

The Great Santa

Geoffrey Wolff

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

I’m a Mad Dog Biting Myself for Sympathy

Louise Erdrich

‘I had never seen a child this little before, so small that it was not a child yet.’

War Memories

Peregrine Hodson

‘I said I thought it was difficult to judge the actions of war in peace because war and peace are different worlds.’

Time’s Arrow (Part Two)

Martin Amis

‘Nine nights later we woke up in the small hours and lay there coldly. “Shtib,” he grunted.’

Dragons

Julian Barnes

‘Everything bad came from the north. Whatever else they believed, the whole town, both parts of it, knew that.’

The Temple in Budapest

Nicola Pressburger & Giorgio Pressburger

‘Like the exterminating angel the rabbi appeared among us.’