“James had taken his own life, but the need to do so was not something easily explained. He had the life he wanted: money, a home, a job, a wife, a good friend. I’d known people who died at their… — Hazel Butler Copy Share
“James had taken his own life, but the need to do so was not something easily explained. He had the life he wanted: money, a home, a job, a wife, a good friend. I’d known people who died at their own hand because life became unbearable, or because something happened, something terrible. That wasn’t so for James—there was something inside… — Hazel Butler Copy Share
“Joshua had always been able to get away with things—things for which he should never have been forgiven. He was a lot like James in that respect, for while my husband had bought his grace with his brilliance, Joshua did so with his looks. I considered that a moment, before turning away, suddenly finding I could not bear to look… — Hazel Butler Copy Share
“Was James bipolar?” The tears returned, and I watched her battle them. “We don’t use that word in our family.” I stared at her for a moment. “Why not?” “Mum and Dad don’t believe in it.” She kept walking. “James was always … troubled. But there was nothing wrong with him, nothing more than anyone else anyway, everyone feels a… — Hazel Butler Copy Share
“The past had already been dealt with, to one end or another, it was certain, fixed, the horror of it was already over. For… — Hazel Butler Copy Share Image
“I swore as the knife I’d been using to dice our dinner bit into my finger. I dropped it on the floor, blood spattering… — Hazel Butler Copy Share Image
“Insects crawled across my skin, legs skittering across my flesh, numbed paths of cold left in their wake. They were the creatures that heralded… — Hazel Butler Copy Share Image
“A shade flickered to my left, an eerie shadow balanced even more precariously on the railing than I. Her plimsolls struggled to grip the… — Hazel Butler Copy Share Image
“I found serenity in the towers, especially the highest, even in the midst of winter. The crows also enjoyed the lofts, and I habitually… — Hazel Butler Copy Share Image
“In the distance, steel-blue mountains loomed heavy on the horizon, their shoulders burdened with the same accursed snow the gods were currently depositing upon… — Hazel Butler Copy Share Image
“I imagined her poised, a humerus in one hand, a toothbrush in the other, as she gently brushed away the last remnants of the… — Hazel Butler Copy Share Image
“It seemed for a moment as if something was there, loitering between the knurled and towering cherry trees, a flash of a presence as… — Hazel Butler Copy Share Image
“It was a fact that had become the focus of my entire life, a whisper in my heartbeat, a permanent, insidious presence that punctuated… — Hazel Butler Copy Share Image
