Will Wiles - The Way Inn

CONTENTS COVER TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT DEDICATION EPIGRAPH PART ONE: THE CONFERENCE PART TWO: THE HOTEL PART THREE: THE INNER HOTEL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ALSO BY WILL WILES ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

77–85 Fulham Palace Road,

London W6 8JB

4thestate.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate 2014

Text © Will Wiles 2014

Will Wiles asserts his moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

‘The House of Asterion’ by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by James E. Irby, from Labyrinths , copyright © 1962, 1964 by New Directions Publishing Corp., reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.; and by permission of Pollinger Ltd.

A catalogue record of this book is

available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Cover design by Jarrod Taylor

Cover photograph © Robert Dant/Alamy

Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at

www.harpercollins.co.uk/green

Source ISBN: 9780007545551

Ebook Edition © June 2014 ISBN: 9780007545568

Version: 2015-01-28

For Hazel and Guy,

with my love

The house is the same size as the world; or rather, it is the world.

‘THE HOUSE OF ASTERION’,

JORGE LUIS BORGES

COVER

TITLE PAGE CONTENTS COVER TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT DEDICATION EPIGRAPH PART ONE: THE CONFERENCE PART TWO: THE HOTEL PART THREE: THE INNER HOTEL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ALSO BY WILL WILES ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

COPYRIGHT COPYRIGHT CONTENTS COVER TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT DEDICATION EPIGRAPH PART ONE: THE CONFERENCE PART TWO: THE HOTEL PART THREE: THE INNER HOTEL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ALSO BY WILL WILES ABOUT THE PUBLISHER Fourth Estate An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 77–85 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8JB 4thestate.co.uk First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate 2014 Text © Will Wiles 2014 Will Wiles asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work ‘The House of Asterion’ by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by James E. Irby, from Labyrinths , copyright © 1962, 1964 by New Directions Publishing Corp., reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.; and by permission of Pollinger Ltd. A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. Cover design by Jarrod Taylor Cover photograph © Robert Dant/Alamy Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green Source ISBN: 9780007545551 Ebook Edition © June 2014 ISBN: 9780007545568 Version: 2015-01-28

DEDICATION DEDICATION CONTENTS COVER TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT DEDICATION EPIGRAPH PART ONE: THE CONFERENCE PART TWO: THE HOTEL PART THREE: THE INNER HOTEL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ALSO BY WILL WILES ABOUT THE PUBLISHER For Hazel and Guy, with my love

EPIGRAPH EPIGRAPH CONTENTS COVER TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT DEDICATION EPIGRAPH PART ONE: THE CONFERENCE PART TWO: THE HOTEL PART THREE: THE INNER HOTEL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ALSO BY WILL WILES ABOUT THE PUBLISHER The house is the same size as the world; or rather, it is the world. ‘THE HOUSE OF ASTERION’, JORGE LUIS BORGES

PART ONE: THE CONFERENCE

PART TWO: THE HOTEL

PART THREE: THE INNER HOTEL

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

ALSO BY WILL WILES Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

The bright red numbers on the radio-alarm clock beside my bed arranged themselves into the unfortunate shape of 6:12. Barely four hours since I went to sleep, I was abruptly awake. I remembered that I had been in the bar, and that I had seen the woman again.

Apart from the red digital display – 6:13 – the room was dark. And the preceding day was clear: I had seen her again, and I had spoken to her. Over the years I had come to believe that my memory was steadily enhancing this woman. Our first encounter was so out of the ordinary that it took on a completely unreal complexion in retrospect, and I suspected that I might be elaborating on it, on her, to make the whole bizarre incident more exotic. But there she was again, matching perfectly what I had assumed was an idealised vision. Her Amazonian height, and her pale skin and red hair – even in the flesh, there was something about her that didn’t quite match up to reality, as if she was too high definition. Just hours later our reunion had already taken on the qualities of a dream. One that had been interrupted before it was complete. Maurice. Maurice had ruined it.