The World I Made for Her

Thomas Moran

This is a love story with a difference. James receives daily doses of drugs and thoughts of Nuala, one of his regular nurses, begin to infiltrate his subconscious until he (and we) can no longer tell the difference between imagination and reality. Inspired by the author's time spent in an intensive care unit, this is an entrancing story and insightful in a way that only personal experience will allow.

Extract

I'm in a world of wavering shades, shadowy figures. The blackness is no longer absolute ... I think I hear things ... there is some faint light in my room, a sort of glowing lucency. Everything feels provisional ... Then I see Nuala looking at me ... she's very close. She never wears perfume but always has a faint sweet aroma around her hair. Her eyes are starting to catch and reflect the glow of the new day's light. 'Can you hear me? Do you know me? Do you know where we are?'

Parallels