The Lighthouse

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Alison Moore. The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse

CHAPTER ONE. Violets

CHAPTER TWO. Breasts

CHAPTER THREE. Beef and Onion

CHAPTER FOUR. Perfume

CHAPTER FIVE. Sun Cream

CHAPTER SIX. Stilettos

CHAPTER SEVEN. Stewed Apples

CHAPTER EIGHT. Charms

CHAPTER NINE. Oranges

CHAPTER TEN. Memorabilia

CHAPTER ELEVEN. Disinfectant

CHAPTER TWELVE. Romance

CHAPTER THIRTEEN. Cigarette Smoke

CHAPTER FOURTEEN. Venus Flytraps

CHAPTER FIFTEEN. Coffee

CHAPTER SIXTEEN. Moths

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. Camphor

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. The Ferry

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Acknowledgements

Отрывок из книги

LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2012

The Lighthouse begins on a North Sea ferry, on whose blustery outer deck stands Futh, a middle-aged, recently separated man heading to Germany for a restorative walking holiday.

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Kenny and Futh used to stand at their bedroom windows at lights out, facing one another across their back gardens, each with a torch, flashing messages through the darkness. It was like Morse code except that it didn’t mean anything. Kenny would flash-flash-flash and Futh would flash-flash-flash back; Kenny would flash-pause-flash and Futh would send it back. Eventually, the game would stop. It was, for Futh, like looking at a lighthouse on the horizon at night. There was this flashing of light and then nothing, and you waited for the next flash, looking at where the light had been and where it would be again but you were looking at darkness.

When eventually no flash of light interrupted the darkness, it meant that Kenny was in bed, and then Futh got into bed too. In later years he would take the torch under the covers with him and read the sometime banned literature from his mother’s bookshelves.

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