Welcome to Litsy!

This is a tricky book to review as I can‘t say it was an enjoyable read due to its heavy content, but it was extremely well written. Clara lives in an apartment with her sick father and her young daughter. As time goes on, Clara becomes increasingly paranoid about the world outside and cuts the family off from the outside world. This is a heavy book with abuse and violence and incest, so read accordingly. A low pick due to content.

"Maybe the Earth is only round to stop people going to the edge and jumping into the void, to leave us with no way out."

"As far as I‘m concerned, all the policemen in the world could be brothers; they move in straight lines and walk with a total lack of grace or flexibility, as if they were being controlled by wires from the sky. This one was so well-groomed that the entire hallway was left reeking of cologne."

"Maybe I‘m imagining it all. Dad and the bird are real, and Flor is too, and that‘s enough. I could say: one day Carmen flew in through the kitchen window; or say: her fingers had turned into great lengths of cartilage, there were feathers under her arms and she was foaming at the mouth. What‘s it to me? I‘ve got nothing to prove. Only I know the things I know and nobody else cares."

"There are things I‘d rather not think about. Sometimes even thought is a kind of invasion, like seeing yourself naked in the mirror: it‘s more embarrassing than if someone else were looking."

"The bird smell had taken over Dad‘s bedroom. Some days I opened the window to air it out, but the air had got used to staying put, like a whirlwind stuck in purgatory."