‘Demolition’ by Fiona McFarlane

This is an edifying, exhilarating, perfectly-formed thing. It feels less ‘written’ than ‘orchestrated’. Eva is interviewed by a journalist about Paul Biga, her old neighbour – a psychopath it turns out – while over the way his family house is pulled down. The interviewer’s questions are strangely inapplicable; Eva’s memories of the house are less about the murders and more about the unacknowledged lusts and loves of living amongst people. 

First published in The New Yorker, May 2020, and available to subscribers to read here

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