Alastair Bruce - Wall of Days

In time I will sink into the waters, my eyes, mouth open to the silt. I will become a new island man. I will wait for years, for centuries until my body is found in turn. Then stories will be told about me.

Perhaps they will end well. Then I will live once more. Or perhaps just a semblance, a shadow of me. A story of me.

Outside the cave the body in the branches sways in the air. A stranger, approaching along the cliff path from my fishing grounds, might even think it alive.

Thank you to Andrew McIntosh for many a chat about the manuscript and his insight and encouragement. Big thanks to my parents and brothers for early readings and support and to Dan Hopkin for his advice. Sue Armstrong helped greatly with improving the manuscript after the first draft for which I am grateful, as I am for the support of many friends and family. Thanks to all at Umuzi and The Clerkenwell Press for their enthusiasm for the novel, and also to Karina Magdalena Szczurek and André Brink who have been extremely generous. Finally, particular thanks to my wife Tabatha who has helped most of all in this and so much else.

First published in Great Britain in 2011 by The Clerkenwell Press

an imprint of

PROFILE BOOKS LTD

3a Exmouth House

Pine Street

London ec1r 0jh

www.profilebooks.com

First published in South Africa by

Umuzi, an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd Copyright © Alastair Bruce, 2010, 2011

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Printed and bound in Great Britain by

Clays, Bungay, Suffolk

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84668 800 3

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