A Song for Issy Bradley
Page 32
Damp seeps between her toes, crawls up her socks, and as this secondary cold banishes tiredness, it occurs to her that the contrast between the bare horizon and the promise of the shore marks the difference between heaven and earth.
The waves rock inexorably closer. Lacy spume swamps her toes; the tide licks and retreats, licks and retreats. She waits for the inevitable surge, watches as its expanding arc is held high, until it heaves like a long exhalation, pitching past her knees. The nightie tangles her legs. She staggers then straightens, standing fast as the island is buried. And as the last of her lonely, waterlogged footprints melt under the rush of the tide, she turns to face home.
For Ailsa and Robert, with thanks
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank my Ph.D. supervisors, Ailsa Cox and Robert Sheppard, for their ongoing support and friendship. I’d also like to thank the members of Edge Hill’s Narrative Research Group for valuable feedback and Edge Hill’s Postgraduate Research Bursary Fund for funding an Arvon Course. Special thanks to Amanda Richardson and Jenn Ashworth for reading draft chapters, and to Sarah Franklin for reading and critiquing the final draft.
Thank you to Jo Cannon for help with medical details and Tony D’Arcy-Masters from the Southport Offshore Rescue Trust (Southport Lifeboat) for answering numerous coastal questions. Thanks to Dialogue—a Journal of Mormon Thought for publishing an early version of “Miracle Boy” as a short story.
A huge thank-you to my agent, Veronique Baxter; my editor, Jocasta Hamilton; and everyone at Ballantine Books.
Finally, love and thanks to my lovely children—wearers of smelly football boots and tellers of terrible jokes. And to Neil, for everything.
BY CARYS BRAY
A Song for Issy Bradley
Sweet Home (stories)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CARYS BRAY was brought up in a devout Mormon family. In her early thirties she left the Church and replaced religion with writing. She was awarded the Scott prize for her debut short story collection, Sweet Home. A Song for Issy Bradley is her first novel. She lives in Southport, England, with her husband and four children.
#IssyBradley
@CarysBray