If someone in a neighbouring universe had decided to write about his life, in whatever time, he hoped for their sake that this was the last page, as he very much doubted his life would carry on in the same vein. He had probably exhausted his quota of excitement in the past two weeks, and from this point on his life would carry on in peaceful monotony, like that of any other writer.
He gazed at Andrew Harrington, the character with whom he would have started this hypothetical novel, and, as he saw him walk away bathed in the golden glow of dawn, perhaps with a euphoric smile playing about his lips, he told himself that this was the perfect image with which to end the tale. He wondered, as if somehow he were able to see or hear me, whether at that very moment someone was not doing precisely that, then experiencing the rush of joy every writer feels when finishing a novel, a happiness nothing else in life can bring – not sipping Scotch whisky in the bathtub until the water goes cold, not caressing a woman’s body, not the touch on the skin of the delicious breeze heralding the arrival of summer.
About the Author
Felix Palma was born in Spain in 1968. A columnist and literary critic, his short stories have appeared in numerous publications.
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Copyright
1
Copyright © Felix Palma 2008
Translation copyright © Nick Caistor 2011
First published in Spanish as
Felix Palma asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-0-00-734412-3
EPub Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780007344147
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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