Longlisted: Bedford Short Story Competition 2024 ‘Songs of Desire at the Library’

I have always loved to spend time in libraries, and still recall the joy of visiting them, to borrow a new book, as a small child. This story was inspired by the notion of a grown man, visiting a library because of a work assignment, and recalling memories of being there as a boy. The story is set in a Modernist library in a city suburb, and concerns a secret that the boy (and the man) has harboured for a very long time ...