He had the feeling that there was something physically behind his eyes, blocking the light.

What if you had faith and performed good works, what if you died and went to heaven, and what if all the people you met there were people you didn't like?

It was morning by the clock but deepest nighttime in his body.

Pregnancy humbles husbands. After an initial rush of male pride they quickly recognise the minor role that nature had assigned them in the drama of reproduction.

In the end we had the pieces of the puzzle, but no matter how we put them together, gaps remained, oddly shaped emptinesses mapped by what surrounded them, like countries we couldn't name.

All sixteen mentioned her jutting ribs, the insubstantiality of her thighs, and one, who went up to the roof with Lux during a warm winter rain, told us how the basins of her collarbones collected water.

Don't waste your time on life.