WHEN I WAS YOUNG

What to say about this story? It’s about a hard life in which the narrator describes violence endured over the years, the effects of a traumatised childhood, and a drift into prostitution in later years. There’s cruelty and coldness of the world, described in strong imagery. But a thread which runs through it is the presence of an aunt and how she was there during childhood and then in much later years. I’ll not spoil it but words said by the aunt in those childhood years are reversed in her final moments in a way which ends the story on a note of hope and optimism against the backdrop of darkness and casual violence described earlier. A gritty, tough read, and a story which shows the resilience of the human spirit.