Sublime

A months-old knot inside Marie-Laure begins to loosen.

‘Did you take it?’ said James, looking at the children one after the other. Abruptly he seemed remote and stern, and desirable because of this; so Thomas turned away in shame.

Jenny had saved the precious grains of sand in an empty Colman’s mustard jar and when she left home and married Simon she had taken the jar with her. Now and then, when she feels herself disappearing into his or Charlotte’s life, a minor character in their stories, she holds the jar to the window and watches the light glinting off the tiny

inures

She had been picturing a village of mice living their lives under the bath, playing violins, going to school, having