Swimming Home

by Deborah Levy

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Life is only worth living because we hope it will get better and we’ll all get home safely.’

it’s quite a relief to feel miserable again. I don’t feel anything when I take my pills.’

She had turned into a toad in old age and if anyone dared to kiss her she would not turn back into a princess because she had never been a princess in the first place.

They know they have to dream themselves out of life and back into it, because life must always win us back.