By now I think Tom and I disagree about everything but what a short-story writer he is. This is my favourite one. The dialogue is so crisp you can taste it. The uneasy atmosphere of Is this banter or is this cruelty? is perfect. Finally, the numbered sections make you see how he doesn’t really write paragaphs so much as prose poems. I wish I had his patience and clarity of mind.
First published in We Don’t Know What We’re Doing, Faber, 2015
A Personal Anthology 