Excerpt from The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Please don't do this again. I know you think you have to because of what happened with your father but none of that is your fault. No one will think any less of you if you change your mind and leave. Please, darling, just think about it.

She's written more but I turn off the screen and put the phone face down on my bedside table. I want the trial to start so that I don't have time for second thoughts or to analyse my decision any further. I have coated the idea that I might be doing the wrong thing with a thin layer of self-assurance, brittle and flaking where I've picked and rubbed at it, so I know if I read the rest of her message the veneer will crumble, and if I reply to Justin he'll offer to come and get me and I'll say yes.

I've finished eating and I'm still hungry when Mike comes back in. "Nearly forgot," he says. "From Boo." He puts a pen and two spiral-bound notebooks on the bed.

That evening, I open one and pick up the pen.

DEAREST H,

Excerpted from The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller. Copyright © 2023 by Claire Fuller. Excerpted by permission of Tin House Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.