Chapters (109)
- Cover
- About the Author
- Praise for Tim Weaver
- Dedication
- Part One
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- Joline
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- The Motel
- 11
- 12
- Part Two
- 13
- 14
- Caraca
- 15
- 16
- 17
- Late-Night Call
- 18
- 19
- 20
- Pioneer
- Part Three
- 21
- 22
- 23
- The Suicide: Part 1
- 24
- 25
- 26
- The Suicide: Part 2
- 27
- 28
- 29
- Clear: Part 1
- 30
- 31
- Clear: Part 2
- Part Four
- 32
- 33
- 34
- Monster
- 35
- 36
- 37
- Martina: Part 1
- Part Five
- 38
- 39
- 40
- Martina: Part 2
- 41
- 42
- 43
- Dead Ends
- 44
- Part Six
- 45
- 46
- 47
- The Photograph Album
- 48
- 49
- 50
- Empty
- Part Seven
- 51
- 52
- Retirement: Part 1
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- Retirement: Part 2
- 57
- Part Eight
- 58
- 59
- 60
- 61
- 62
- Circle
- 63
- 64
- 65
- 66
- An Ending
- 67
- 68
- Part Nine
- 69
- Family
- 70
- Part Ten
- 71
- 72
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgements
- THE BEGINNING
Barnes smiled. ‘Jo, then. Was there something else?’
‘It can be hard, that’s all.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, it’s the job I deserve, but I don’t know if it’s the one I should take.’
‘Why not?’
Jo thought of Ethan, pictured him that morning at the table, eating his cereal while telling her about a book they’d been reading at school about a lonely wolf pup.
‘My son, Ethan,’ she said, one hand on her water, ‘I reckon he’d probably say I was a pretty good mom. A definite pass, but maybe not top marks. Parenting is one of those jobs you never really master. It’s got a learning curve like this’ – she held up her spare hand at ninety degrees – ‘so anyone who tells you they’ve got it figured out is a liar. All you can really hope for is that you make more right choices than wrong ones.’
Jo looked out of the window again and could make out a vague reflection of herself, her face pale, ghostly, her eyes painted with blobs of light.