Gay, John - The Bedevilments

Right.’ She flicked the thin dress straps off her shoulders, then reached behind her back for the zip. ‘Let’s get started, mister.’ Anthony is barely present in his own life. A failed academic career, a soul-crushing call-centre job, an Alcoholics Anonymous group he resents attending: he’s checked out from all of it. He spends the Sydney summer trying to avoid the sun, and lives only for the evenings when he can visit Emma, a sex worker at a local brothel. It’s during these rented hours that Anthony finds brief moments of human connection. He can afford to see Emma maybe once a month, but he can never hold on that long. Then Emma disappears, and there’s nowhere left for Anthony to hide. By turns appalling, funny and tender, The Bedevilments is an eye-opening story about addiction, sex and anonymity.