Excerpt from Thirteen Ways of Looking by Colum McCann, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

—Of course.

She is unsure of what it is that she must stop. The house is meant as a retreat. None of the Sisters have been told of her background, only that she lived in South America once, that she has come from Houston, that she is suffering exhaustion, she is here to rediscover sleep, that is all.

What she needs now is to get beyond the first bruised moments of waking. To make her bed, to take a shower, to say her dailies.

Sister Anne rises from the chair and only then does Beverly notice that she has brought her a cup of coffee and a biscuit on a saucer. The small mercies.

From the book Thirteen Ways of Looking by Colum McCann. Copyright © 2015 by Colum McCann. Reprinted by arrangement with Random House, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.