A day came when I could not go wrong. It was a Friday evening. We had dropped Paulina at her bus stop, as she was going home for the weekend, and on the way back we stopped at a new fish-and-chip shop for takeaways. Usually my father would have been in a hurry to get home before the smell of the food got into the upholstery, but the unfamiliar territory drew us both into a game. I scrambled over the seat and stretched out in the back. We went down Louis Botha. Certainty settled over me like a blanket. I knew exactly where we were going. I had X-ray vision, I could see through the leather seats, where springs were coiled in fibre, I could see through the metal ribs of the door. Factory yards, shopfronts, garden fences and houses drifted by. My father turned off the main road earlier than he should have and wound through the crooked streets of Savoy. I saw the yellow-brick chimneys of the houses, the cars parked in driveways, the lights burning in windows. I had become a compass needle. Rather than trying to figure out where he was going, I was giving him directions, telling him when to slow down, where to turn, when to double back.
At last we stopped. The air was thick with the homely smell of food, which the vinegar had not entirely soured. I could see a streetlight on a tall pole, the jigsaw undersides of oak leaves, pieces of sky between branches. My dad’s voice reached me through the wall of the seat: ‘Where are we now, my boy?’
For the moment, I could not answer. I lay in the dark with the bitter knowledge that I had unlearned the art of getting lost.
Dear readers,
We rely on subscriptions from people like you to tell these other stories — the types of stories most UK publishers would consider too risky to take on.
Our subscribers don’t just make the books physically happen. They also help us approach booksellers, because we can demonstrate that our books already have readers and fans. And they give us the security to publish in line with our values, which are collaborative, imaginative and ‘shamelessly literary’ (the Guardian).
All of our subscribers:
receive a first edition copy of every new book we publish
are thanked by name in the books
are warmly invited to contribute to our plans and choice of future books Become a subscriber, or give a subscription to a friend
Visit andotherstories.org/subscribe to become part of an alternative approach to publishing.
Subscriptions are:
£20 for two books per year
£35 for four books per year
£50 for six books per year
The subscription includes postage to Europe, the US and Canada. If you’re based anywhere else, we’ll charge for postage separately. Other ways to get involved
If you’d like to know about upcoming events and reading groups (our foreign-language reading groups help us choose books to publish, for example) you can:
join the mailing list at: www.andotherstories.org
follow us on twitter: @andothertweets
join us on Facebook: And Other Stories
~ ~ ~
This book was made possible thanks to the support of:
Abigail Headon Abigail Miller • Adam Biles • Adam Lenson • Adriana Maldonado • Ajay Sharma • Alan Bowden • Alan & Lynn • Alannah Hopkin • Alasdair Thomson • Alastair Gillespie • Alastair Kenny • Alec Begley • Alex Gregory • Alex Ramsey • Alex Read • Alex Sutcliffe • Alex Webber & Andy Weir • Alex H Wolf • Ali Smith • Ali Usman • Alison Anderson • Alison Bennets • Alison Hughes • Alison Layland • Allison Graham • Amelia Ashton • Amy Capelin • Amy Crofts • Ana Amália Alves • Andrea Reinacher • Andrew Marston • Andrew McCafferty • Andrew Nairn • Andrew Wilkinson • Angela Jane Mackworth-Young • Angus MacDonald • Ann McAllister • Anna Holmwood • Anna Milsom • Anna Vinegrad • Annabel Hagg • Anne Carus • Anne Meadows • Anne Withers • Anne Woodman • Anne Marie Jackson • Annette Morris & Jeff Dean • Annie Henriques • Anthony Messenger • Anthony Quinn • Archie Davies • Asher Norris • Averill Buchanan
Barbara Adair Barbara Mellor • Barbara Zybutz • Bartolomiej Tyszka • Ben Coles • Ben Paynter • Ben Smith • Ben Thornton • Ben Ticehurst • Benjamin Judge • Bettina Debon • Bianca Jackson • Blanka Stoltz • Brenda Scott • Bruce Ackers • Bruce & Maggie Holmes
Camilla Cassidy Candy Says Juju Sophie • Cara Eden • Cara & Bali Haque • Carole JS Russo • Caroline Rigby • Caroline Thompson • Carolyn A Schroeder • Carolyne Loosen • Carrie LaGree • Catherine Mansfield • Cecile Baudry • Cecily Maude • Celine McKillion • Charles Beckett • Charles Lambert • Charles Rowley • Charlotte Holtam • Charlotte Williams • Chris Day • Chris Gribble • Chris Stevenson • Chris Watson • Christina Baum • Christina Scholtz • Christine Luker • Christopher Allen • Christopher Marlow • Christopher Spray • Ciara Greene • Ciara Ní Riain • Claire Brooksby • Claire Williams • Claire Williams • Clare Buckeridge • Clare Fisher • Clare Keates • Clarice Borges-Smith • Clifford Posner • Clive Bellingham • Clive Chapman • Colin Burrow • Collette Eales • Craig Barney
Daisy Meyland-Smith Damien Tuffnell • Dan Powell • Daniel Carpenter • Daniel Hugill • Daniel Lipscombe • Daniel JF Quinn • Daniela Steierberg • Dave Lander • David Archer • David Breuer • David Davenport • David Hebblethwaite • David Hedges • David Johnson-Davies • David Kelly • David Wardrop • David & Ann Dean • Debbie Pinfold • Deborah Smith • Denis Stillewagt & Anca Fronescu • Duarte Nunes
E Jarnes Eamonn Furey • Ebru & Jon • Ed Tallent • Eileen Buttle • EJ Baker • Elaine Rassaby • Eleanor Maier • Elizabeth Boyce & Simon Ellis • Elizabeth Cochrane • Elizabeth Draper • Ellie Michell • Els van der Vlist & Elise Rietveld • Emily Jeremiah • Emily Jones • Emily Rhodes • Emma Kenneally • Emma McLean-Riggs • Emma Timpany • Eric Langley • Evgenia Loginova
Federay Holmes Fiona & Andrew Sutton • Frances Perston • Francesca Bray • Francis Taylor • Freddy Hamilton
Gale Pryor Garry Wilson • Gary Debus • Gavin Madeley • Gawain Espley • Gemma Tipton • Geoff Egerton • Geoff Thrower • George Sandison & Daniela Laterza • George Wilkinson • Geraldine Brodie • Gesine Treptow • Gill Boag-Munroe • Gillian Cameron • Gillian Doherty • Giselle Maynard • Gloria Sully • Glynis Ellis • Gordon Cameron • Gordon Campbell • Graham & Steph Parslow • Graham R Foster • Guy Haslam
Hannah Falvey Hannah & Matt Perry • Harriet Gamper • Harriet Mossop • Harriet Sayer • Harrison Young • Helen Buck • Helen Collins • Helen Simmons • Helen Wormald • Helena Merriman • Helena Taylor • Helene Walters • Henrike Laehnemann • Howard Watson • Howdy Reisdorf
Ian Barnett Ian Buchan • Ian Burgess • Ian Kirkwood • Ian McMillan • Imogen Forster • Inna Carson • Isabella Garment • Isfahan Henderson
J Collins Jack Brown • Jackie Andrade • Jacqueline Haskell • Jacqueline Lademann • Jacqueline Taylor • James Barlow • James Cubbon • James Mutch • James Portlock • Jane Brandon • Jane Woollard • Janet Packard • Janette Ryan • Jasmine Gideon • JC Sutcliffe • Jenifer Logie • Jennifer Higgins • Jennifer Hurstfield • Jenny Diski • Jenny Kosniowski • Jenny McPhee • Jenny Newton • Jess Wood • Jillian Jones • Jo Elvery • Jo Harding • Joanna Ellis • Joanne Hart • Jocelyn English • Joel Love • Johan Forsell • John Allison • John Conway • John Corrigan • John Gent • John Glahome • John Nicholson • John William Fallowfield • Jon Riches • Jon Lindsay Miles • Jonathan Ruppin • Jonathan Watkiss • Jorge Lopez de Luzuriaga • Joseph Cooney • Joy Tobler • Judy Kendall • Julia Humphreys • Julia Sandford-Cooke • Julian Duplain • Julian Lomas • Julie Gibson • Julie Van Pelt • Juliet Hillier • Juliet Swann • Juraj Janik • Justine Taylor