The Kindness

Polly Samson

With teasing glimpses, this wise and tender meditation on love, disappointment and loss gradually consumes you with clever plotting and sensuous prose. Richly descriptive, complicated relationships are effortlessly depicted with heartbreaking intimacy and the melancholy burden of the plot is balanced with gentle humour and warmth.

Extract

On the village green an enormous bonfire was blazing, cordite sparking expectation as they made their way towards the crowd that surrounded it. Rockets squealed and golden dandelions burst above their heads and he found himself turning to watch the bright little pansy of Mira’s upturned face beneath her woolly hat. Exploding showers lit her skin, her mouth and eyes were rounded with wonder and he found more pleasure in her face watching the fireworks than the fireworks themselves. He was lit up with the thought: This is it! Ecstatic. I am a father, what a thing!

Parallels