Shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2017.

In Benjamin Markovits's story a lonely man is struggling to come to terms with recent events which are shrouded in mystery. Read by Kyle Soller.

Benjamin Markovits grew up in Texas, London, Oxford and Berlin. He has published seven novels, including Either Side of Winter, about a New York private school, and a trilogy on the life of Lord Byron: Imposture, A Quiet Adjustment and Childish Loves. His most recent novel, You Don't Have To Live Like This, about an experimental community in Detroit, won the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction in 2015. He won a Pushcart Prize for his short story Another Sad, Bizarre Chapter in Human History. Granta selected him as one of the Best of Young British Novelists in 2013.

The five stories in the BBC National Short Story Award 2017 reflected an energy and excitement about short fiction from a generation of the UK's most dynamic, contemporary writers.

Abridged by Rowan Routh

Produced by Elizabeth Allard. Show less