White sheets, bruised men

This week’s new arrivals include Beverley Bie Brahic’s White Sheets, a PBS Recommendation, collected in boxes from the printer this afternoon, and I wasn’t sure how the peachy orange was going to sit on the brown card but it’s fine, oh yes. Then home, a little fiddle with the website, and it’s available from there NOW.

And earlier in the week, the book I’d asked for last December for Christmas in this post, which is about Alfred Hayes, who died in 1985 and was my discovery of last year and probably this year too: after reading The End of Me a couple of days ago, I’m still feeling knocked sideways. Paul Bailey: ‘Hayes has done for bruised men what Jean Rhys does for bruised women, and they both write heartbreakingly beautiful sentences.’