The following is a sample story from The Peculiarities of Yearning by Stephanie Carty, available to buy from our online bookshop.
‘Aspects of My Father’ by Stephanie Carty
After my father died, Mother and I had his body preserved to keep him around the house. As part of his head was sprayed over the back of the garage, we had the option to replace it. We selected four heads from a catalogue for the unexpectedly widowed. The waxy skin was malleable. I smoothed his brow of judgment and pinched laughter lines around his mouth. At last, I could make my father smile.
My favourite replacement head looked like a cartoon therapist with an inquisitive moustache. At first, it seemed strange to call him Father. But the gin unfurled my tongue, and I whispered truths of regret into his deaf ear.
The middle-aged head with freckled cheeks advised me to stop chewing gum all day so that I could smell the world around me again, connect with the concoctions in the air. A younger head with ginger flecks in his beard sighed and said he wanted me to remember what it felt like to be held. And the handsome head with cheekbones like Paul Newman ordered me in a firm but fair way to act like the thirty-two-year-old I was and get out in the world.
I left my mother’s house for the first time since my divorce. When I returned late, I still smelt the tang of life from the city on my coat. I’d inhaled hope amongst the cigarette smoke and perfumed necks. I peered through the crack of Mother’s door. She lay cradled in arms that once belonged to my father. In the gloom, I could not make out which head rested against hers.
I packed my bags with clothes of every colour except black. On the way to the front door, I grabbed Father’s huge umbrella to shelter me from the sobbing skies.
By Stephanie Carty from The Peculiarities of Yearning (£10.99)
I’ve waited a long time for this book. ‘Aspects of My Father’ assures me I won’t be disappointed.
I’m ordering one for me and one for a friend too.