The Insult (53 page)

‘How are you, Martin?’

‘You know, you were right,’ I said. ‘You were right all along.’

There was a silence, one of Visser’s famous silences, but I knew that, if I’d been granted a moment’s vision, if I could have seen him, just for an instant, standing there in his overcoat (if indeed he wore an overcoat!), he would’ve been smiling down at me, with pride.

At the same time, though, now that he was here, in the village, it was hard to rule out the possibility that he might simply have discontinued the experiment. Just kind of disconnected me. Brought the whole thing to an end. Out of pity. Believing, finally, that I’d had enough.

It was possible, surely.

After all, on the far side of the moon, there are intelligent life-forms who are keeping us under constant observation.

And there is always somebody behind you, with a gun.

A Note on the Author

RUPERT THOMSON
is the author of eight highly acclaimed novels, of which
Air and Fire
and
The Insult
were shortlisted for the Writer’s Guild Fiction Prize and the
Guardian
Fiction Prize respectively. His most recent novel,
Death of a Murderer
, was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Novel Award. His memoir
This Party's Got to Stop
was published in 2010.

By the Same Author

Fiction

Dreams of Leaving
The Five Gates of Hell
Air and Fire
Soft
The Book of Revelation
Divided Kingdom
Death of a Murderer

Non-fiction

This Party’s Got to Stop

First published 1996

Copyright © 1996 by Rupert Thomson

This electronic edition published in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages

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

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP

eISBN: 978-1-4088-3319-3

www.bloomsbury.com/rupertthomson

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