My final choice is an incredibly short story, just 725 words, that first opened my eyes to the power of telling. Moving between three modes of address – you, I and we – it takes the reader flying through many decades of a relationship between an unnamed man and woman. Each paragraph narrates a new phase in their lives: “We got a place. We read a lot. We rescued a dog. You worked at a shelter. I was a terrible handyman. My father called friends. We moved to the city.” The key to its brilliance is the way the writer strings together statements that conjure concrete images in the reader’s mind, so that the story is almost like flicking though a photo album. That, for me, is the secret of all good writing, whether you’re showing or telling.

First published online in 2009 as one of Granta magazine’s New Voices and free to read here