Jon Hotten
Emma-Jane Hughes
Naomi Johnson
Friðrik Sólnes Jónsson
Rae Joyce
Elena Kaufman
Zarabéa Kayani
Luke Kennard
Louise Kennedy
Mele Kent
Dan Kieran
Martin G. King
Lania Knight
Pierre L’Allier
Charles Lambert
Chris Lambert
Zoe Lambert
Nick Lord Lancaster
Anne Landricombe and Christine Gill
John Lavin
Jason Le Masurier
Michelle Le Masurier
Jonathan Lee
Toby Litt
Frieda Little
Alison Lock
Rowena Macdonald
Adnan Mahmutovic
Joanne Martin
John Martin
Riona McCormack
Anthony McGowan
Ian McGuire
Danielle McLaughlin
Catherine McNamara
Wendy McQueen
Joe Melia
Erinna Mettler
Mark Middleton
Alban Miles
Annika Milisic-Stanley
Elizabeth Miller
James Miller
John Mitchinson
Lucy Moffatt
Alison Moore
Steve Moran
Graham Mort
Ruth Nassar
Carlo Navato
Annemarie Neary
Felicia Negomireanu
Andrew Neilson
Marios Nicolaou
Nuala O’Connor
Valerie O’Riordan
Marella Oppenheim
Jeremy Osborne
Scott Pack
Lev Parikian
Hilary Payne
Emma Pearce
Sylvia Petter
Jonathan Pinnock
Justin Pollard
John Pollex
Dan Powell
Alex Preston
Jessica Priestley
Laura Quigley
Alexa Radcliffe-Hart
Uma Rajasingam
Kelly Reynolds
Katy Rink
Riptide Journal
Laura Ritchie
Jane Roberts
Imogen Robertson
HJ Rose-Innes
Eimear Ryan
Amanda Saint
Danny Scheinmann
David Sergeant
Benjamin Serpell
Margaret Shambrook
Babs Short
Valerie Sirr
Philip Slattery
Angela K. Smith
Martin Smith
Richard Smyth
Ruby Speechley
Christopher Stanley
Lisa Stewart
Rachel Stirling
Tabatha Stirling
Ashley Stokes
Anne Summerfield
Alicja Syska
Sam Talbot
Justine Taylor
William Telford
Terri Writes
Margaret Thomas
Mike Scott Thomson
Laura Tickle
Paul Tomlin
Simon Travers
Rachel Trezise
Chloe Turner
Sherri Turner
Lee Upton
Neil Vogler
Felton Vowler
Julie Vowler
Jim Walkley-Cox
Lindsay Waller-Wilkinson
Jayne White
Joel Willans
Kate Wilson
Simon Withers
Michelle Witney
Stella Wulf
Veronica
This edition first published in 2017
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© Tom Vowler, 2017
Epigraph quotation from A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, based on an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, © 2011 Patrick Ness. Reproduced by permission of Walker Books Ltd, London SE11 5HJ.
The right of Tom Vowler to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
‘Debt’ won third place in the 2014 Bristol Prize and was published in Volume 7 of their anthology. A version of ‘Undertow’ was published in The Manchester Review Issue 16 as ‘The Twice Drowned Woman’. ‘At the Musée d’Orsay’ first appeared in Issue 28 of the Southword Journal. ‘Dazzling the Gods’ was featured in the first issue of The Lonely Crowd. ‘Scene Forty-Seven’ was published online in the Wales Arts Review. ‘Romi & Romina’ was runner-up in the STORGY Short Story Prize 2016. ‘The Offspring Badge’ appeared online in Litro Magazine. ‘Banging Che Guevara’ was first published in Issue 17 of Prole magazine, ‘Fireflies’ in The Simple Things magazine. ‘The Grandmaster of Gaza’ first appeared in Issue 3 of The Lonely Crowd, and later in Two Thirds North. ‘Blowhole’ appeared in Unthology 10. ‘An Arrangement’ was published in Issue 3 of Banshee. ‘Lucca: Last Days of a Marriage’ appeared in Issue 6 of The Lonely Crowd. My thanks to the editors of these journals.
While every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright material reproduced herein, the publisher would like to apologise for any omissions and will be pleased to incorporate missing acknowledgements in any further editions.
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A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-78352-399-3 (trade hbk)
ISBN 978-1-78352-400-6 (ebook)
ISBN 978-1-78352-398-6 (limited edition)