A US NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2014 FINALIST

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[Excerpt opens] I long ago abandoned myself to a blind lust for the written word. Literature is my sandbox. In it I play, build my forts and castles, spend glorious time . . . If literature is my sandbox, then the real world is my hourglass - an hourglass that drains grain by grain. Literature give me life, and life kills me.

Well, life kills everyone. [Excerpt ends]

'Beautiful and absorbing.' New York Times

'Exquisite . . . This one's a keeper.' Independent