And my own body felt more alive than it ever had, as if the woman’s long-nailed finger had reached into my chest and kindled the flame in my heart. I could hear every sound around me again, painfully. I swallowed, tasting each particular smell. Human piss. Dirty wool. The sweat of a person about to die. Gummy and blue, like rainwater caught in a stone’s cleft. Bird droppings. Balsam perfume. Galbanum incense. The dense, moist center of yeasty bread.
- Sophie Strand, The Madonna Secret
