It’s big, it’s fat, it’s Simon’s Cat!

Simon's Cat

Simon Tofield

It would take her thousands of steps to get anywhere, but she would get there easily, and when she arrived, in the present, it would seem like it had been a single movement that brought her there

Taipei

Tao Lin

He’s called Kasper. He’s an Italian prisoner. Kasper has been his code name for a long time, his battle name in a life filled with battles. Now his only battle is to stay alive

The Supernotes Affair

Agent Kasper & Luigi Carletti

For she’d met with books, she went into them to a magic land far from Echt, out and away and south

Sunset Song

Lewis Grassic Gibbon

The best way to help a child through a challenging moment is to give them a story about it, whether they’re being bullied, have fallen in love for the first time, or the tooth-fairy failed to show up

The Story Cure

Ella Berthoud & Susan Elderkin

The abandoned universe was such a weird place, because even though it had been shut down for ever, there were still lights on inside, as if nothing had changed

Some Rain Must Fall And Other Stories

Michel Faber

Mathematics is a world of eternal truths and abstract perfection. Exploring its transcendent beauty can be a spiritual experience

Snowflake Seashell Star

Alex Bellos

If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture—that is immortality enough for me. And as much as anyone deserves.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Caitlin Doughty

Trickster is the mythic embodiment of ambiguity and ambivalence, doubleness and duplicity, contradiction and paradox… A boundary-crosser

Trickster Makes This World

Lewis Hyde

The only visible sign of his power was a woman lying beside him, unmoving, her head resting on his lap, eyes closed, arms hidden under a loose red robe that spread around her, like a flame, on the ash-coloured mat

Silk

Alessandro Baricco

Don't let them make you feel stupid, just because you are happy to play down in the dark with your flashlight. The mystical world depends on you and your tolerance for the absurd. Be strong, my darling ones, and believe!

The Sick Bag Song

Nick Cave

It’s a hard place this world can be. No wonder a baby cries coming into it. Tears from the very start.

Serena

Ron Rash

Somewhere in the world there is a magical book. What does this book do? It simply changes itself to become the book you most need at this point in your life

The Seed Collectors

Scarlett Thomas

There was hardly a door, barely a wall: only a flap of bark, a screen of sticks and mud. There was no need of lock, of door, of wall: this was a prison whose bars were ten thousand miles of water

The Secret River

Kate Grenville

What is the fascination of an island? Why do we experience such a thrill at being surrounded by water, cut off from the rest of mankind, imprisoned on a miniature world

The Scottish Islands

Hamish Haswell-Smith

I thought about flying, stood sometimes on the edge of the rock and wondered. But much as I’d of liked to, and young as I was, I had the sense to know I’d have to wait for some other way to fly

Sarah Thornhill

Kate Grenville

Ungraspable Loki flamed amazement and pleased himself. He was the god of endings. He provided resolutions for stories – if he chose to. The endings he made often led to more problems

Ragnarok

A.S. Byatt

Friendship is smoothing a ruffled feather

The Peanuts Guide to Friendship

Charles M. Schulz

David Eagleman at the School of Life

Legally, a big sister can throw out a younger brother because she’s bigger than he is, and he bugs her all the time and she can do it, and I did it!!! (And if you’re smart, you won’t get involved)

The Peanuts Guide to Brothers and Sisters

Charles M. Schulz

'It’s very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose with a man who’s learning to play the violin.’ That’s what she told the police when she handed them the empty revolver

Revenge of the Lawn

Richard Brautigan

The bullets came fast, too fast to feel. That’s how it should be done, each shot coming quick after the last so you can’t even try to recover, which is when it hurts

Redeployment

Phil Klay

RECIPE FOR MURDER: Throw all the ingredients into a big pot and simmer slowly, stirring with a wooden spoon for a few years. Add the ducks, chillies and brandy towards the end and turn up the heat

Recipes for Love and Murder

Sally Andrew