See How Small

See How Small
Scott Blackwood

A riveting novel about the aftermath of a brutal murder of three teenage girls, written in incantatory prose ‘that's as fine as any being written by an American author today’ (Ben Fountain)One late autumn evening in a Texas town, two strangers walk into an ice cream shop shortly before closing time. They bind up the three teenage girls who are working the counter, set fire to the shop, and disappear. ‘See How Small’ tells the stories of the survivors – family, witnesses, and suspects – who must endure in the wake of atrocity. Justice remains elusive in their world, human connection tenuous.Hovering above the aftermath of their deaths are the three girls. They watch over the town and make occasional visitations, trying to connect with and prod to life those they left behind. "See how small a thing it is that keeps us apart," they say. A master of compression and lyrical precision, Scott Blackwood has surpassed himself with this haunting, beautiful, and enormously powerful new novel.

Copyright (#u17387ec3-b9cf-556f-a2a8-40f537ee8543)

Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.4thestate.co.uk (http://www.4thestate.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate in 2015

Copyright © Scott Blackwood 2015

Scott Blackwood asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Cover photograph © Martin Wimmer/Getty Images

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

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Source ISBN: 9780007580934

Ebook Edition © January 2015 ISBN: 9780007580941

Version: 2015-09-16

Dedication (#u17387ec3-b9cf-556f-a2a8-40f537ee8543)

For Ava, Ellie & Tommi

Epigraphs (#u17387ec3-b9cf-556f-a2a8-40f537ee8543)

The first time I heard the voice I was terrified. It was noon, in summer, in my father’s garden…. I seldom heard the voice when it was not accompanied by a light. Usually it was very bright.

— JOAN OF ARC, FROM THE TRANSCRIPT OF HER TRIAL

Thomas Aquinas invented a third order of duration distinct from time and eternity, which he called aevum…. It coexists with temporal events, at the moment of occurrence, being, as was said, like a stick in a river. Aevum, you might say, is the time order of novels.

— FRANK KERMODE, THE SENSE OF AN ENDING

It shall be called “Bottom’s Dream,” because it hath no bottom.

— NICK BOTTOM, IN WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Contents

Cover (#ub9a99244-805c-57bf-8503-43c80e9543e6)

Title Page (#uf1c1120b-5ab2-5c36-91e3-7892594e6685)

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraphs

Part I

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15