The Hired Man

by Aminatta Forna

I felt no particular sadness when they left: at that time I felt very little at all. Later I felt it. Later still, I got used to being alone.

Everything you need to know about Gost is here in the cemetery.

Most of these memories I’d put safely away, as we all had, then something or someone comes along, like a plough through a fallow field in which all kinds of things lie buried under the crust of earth.

‘But then you’re reminded, every day.’ ‘Yes,’ I said simply. ‘But I like to remember. Not just the bad times, but the good ones too.’