Meg Mason

This novel is about a woman called Martha. She knows there is something wrong with her but she doesn't know what it is. Her husband Patrick thinks she is fine. He says everyone has something, the thing is just to keep going.

By the time Martha finds out what is wrong, it doesn't really matter anymore. It is too late to get the only thing she has ever wanted. Or maybe it will turn out that you can stop loving someone and start again from nothing - if you can find something else to want.

Sorrow and Bliss

Victoria Justice

Fatin Allen

I laughed and Peregrine looked unhappy. ‘I am not being whimsical, Martha. For want of another, beauty is a reason to live.’

Separating at the corner of the park, Peregrine kissed me on both cheeks and said, ‘The Germans have a word for heartbreak, Martha. Liebeskummer. Isn't it awful?’

‘Nostos, Martha, returning home. Algos, pain. Nostalgia is the suffering caused by our unappeased yearning to return.’

When I told Peregrine I was writing a book that was constantly turning into a love story set in an ugly house, he said, ‘First novels are autobiography and wish fulfilment. Evidently, one’s got to push all one’s disappointment and unmet desires through the pipes before one can write anything useful.’

Ingrid met me at the airport, said ‘Bonjour Tristesse,’ and hugged me for a long time.

I was suddenly tired, and hungry, and asked Patrick to tell me about what he had been up to for the last four years and said I would be listening even though my eyes were going to be shut.

I was sorry and wanted to apologise for becoming a factor in his afternoon, for complicating his walk and demanding to be thought about.

‘Well, they say London is a city of eight million lonely people, don’t they.’ The men gently tugged the dog back to his side. ‘But this too shall pass. They also say that.’

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