Stephan Collishaw - Amber

When the print was dry I unhooked it from the line in the bathroom and pinned it to the wall beside the Russian. They hung there together on the wall: two mothers, both young and undeniably pretty. The Russian was dark with long hair and this new one was just a little lighter. While the Russian stared out of the photo, challenging, the other gazed down into the. pram, unaware.

For a full hour I sat at my desk and stared up at these two photographs. One by one I smoked a packet of twenty Prima cigarettes. The lines of Marcinkevicius winged like dark angels above my head; I love you with hands black from crying. With darkness and death. The earth, I felt, was beginning to shift, and the long dead were stirring.

‘Collishaw’s latest evokes Hemingway’s war-torn landscapes with spare language and haunting imagery… a sensuous tale of survival… an intensely moving account of this war and the scars it has left.’

‘Gripping… A haunting and ultimately uplifting tale of love, friendship and betrayal.’

‘Collishaw is impressive in his descriptions of war… The struggle of a man to return from such horrors and try to live as a loving husband and father is described by him in heartbreaking detail. This is a compulsive read.’

‘A tumultuous tale of friendship distorted by love, greed and the barbaric effects of war… the bittersweet love story at the core of this tale… really strikes the deepest chord… a captivating read.’

Published by Dean Street Press 2015

Copyright © 2004 Stephan Collishaw

All Rights Reserved

The right of Stephan Collishaw to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2004 by Sceptre, an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton

ISBN 978 1 910570 01 2