“It is almost seven o’clock. The sun is up, and it pours a warm, golden light across the houses. Last night, he couldn’t sleep, and this morning his body feels hollow, a loose string that folds naturally over itself. On the table in front of him, a sheaf of papers: Gail’s radiology report, her EKG chart, the pages creased from too much handling. Outside, the branches of the sakura tree flutter in the wind. The tree blooms in March, and by April the blossoms are so heavy all the branches are weighted down. By May, the yard is a snowbank of petals.”
Delve into Feb. 1 Writers Read guest Madeleine Thien’s “Certainty,” winner of the Amazon.ca First Novel Award and international Ovid Festival Prize, with this exquisite excerpt from MostlyFiction.com.