The Binding: The most captivating novel of 2019

Where are they now? Dropping to their knees in the streets. In fields. In kitchens. Stopping halfway through a kiss or a fight. Imagine getting it all back. Your daughter’s wedding. The first time you held your son. Bluebells. An ache builds in my throat that has nothing to do with the smoke.

Because of the colours. Because the drab wintry world is so bright I can hardly bear it. Because the pain is closer and the taste of soot in my mouth is as solid as any food I’ve ever eaten. Because I can smell roots and things asleep and seeds waiting to grow.

Remembering and not remembering overlap with each other.

Under everything is happiness so deep and rich it’s like dark wet earth. I don’t know what it means. I don’t know why it’s there. But I could reach out and grab a fistful of it.

How many people are walking around with half their lives missing, oblivious?

thought I saw hopelessness like a desert, featureless and impersonal, so vast that I couldn’t grasp the scale of it.

Gossip is public property.

All I want is to find a shadow somewhere and dissolve into it.

‘No.’ I keep my fist closed, holding on to the pain as if it’s an object.