Martine McDonagh

In this life, games have to be unwinnable or you have to keep thinking of new ones.

I don’t like to be seen.

Only one person ever sees me

‘This is a troubling, beautifully composed novel, rich in its brevity and complex in the psychological portrait it paints.’

Overhead the heron beats in. The full stretch of his wings rakes the air.

There’s a bucket, blown on a gale and snagged by a tree. Pale blue like a patch of old sky that forgot to turn grey

The wall on either side of the gate has been demolished and the deer come and go

Only one person ever sees me, and it is him I am going to now.

Only one person ever sees me, and it is him I am going to now.

Only one person ever sees me, and it is him I am going to now.