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What Were You Dreaming?

Nadine Gordimer

‘And I'm careful what I say, I tell them about the blacks, how too many people spoil it for us, they robbing and killing, you can't blame white people.’

Highlights

Alan Hollinghurst

‘Surely we’re not going to Rome for discos.’

How He Came to be Nowhere

Jonathan Franzen

‘Andy said no, he wasn't arrogant about his victory.’

Exile

Olga Grushin

‘For one instant, while all this seemed possible, he listened to the violent unfolding of his heart.’

Apples

David Guterson

‘He remembered the new, fresh, orchard country of his youth and the rows of apple trees his father had planted on the east bank of the Columbia River.’

What Sheba Did Wrong

Zoë Heller

‘Women observing other women tend to be engrossed by the details—the bodily minutiae, the clothing particulars.’

Great Falls

Richard Ford

‘This is not a happy story. I warn you.’

Some Heat

Miranda July

‘No one knows why ripping up a name makes a person call – science can’t explain it. Erasing the name also works.’

Hard Core

Gabe Hudson

‘My buddy Meat’s the one who showed me the true joy of handling the M203.’

Gabe Hudson in Granta 97: Best of Young American Novelists 2.

Don’t Fall in Love

Mohsin Hamid

‘She does not stare at you, but when your eyes meet, she does not look away.’

Listed for Trial

Tibor Fischer

‘He didn't like attending County Hall.‘

Zephyrs

Jenni Fagan

‘Every step forward causes the road behind him to disappear.’

Mate

Kate Grenville

‘He’d bought the Akubra and the elastic-sided boots but anyone could see he was a city bugger.’

The Womanizer

Richard Ford

‘Austin turned up the tiny street – rue Sarrazin – at the head of which he hoped he would come to a larger one, one he knew, rue de Vaugirard, possibly, which he could take all the way to Josephine Belliard's apartment by the Luxembourg Gardens.’