The Cellist

The Cellistby Jennifer Atkins Jennifer Atkins appears on Granta's Best of Young British Novelists A piercing meditation on love and music, and the silence and inscrutability which underpins the performance of each Luc has lived a long time as a soloist. She has not seen Billy for many years. A visit to a major show of his sculptures sends her arrowing back to younger version of herself: to a time when she had to make room to love him when she'd felt no room

until a young

delirious connections and transitions

We meet these hustlers

along with a monograph by a faculty member who’s recently become embroiled in a bizarre scandal

and Horace idles his time away with alcohol

seen through the eyes of those for whom he still lives

Horace discovers someone brilliant

’ – Harry Mathews

Or does the Wraith – and do the murders – have roots in real events suffered by those fated to a lifetime of labour

unassuming restaurants

picture frames

until a whole arena is lit and revealed