My life in books ROXANE GAY

As her new book, Ayiti, hits shelves, literary heroine Roxane Gay shares the reads that shaped her

MY FAVOURITE LINE FROM A BOOK IS…

She said she knew we were safe with you, and always would be, because once, when she asked you to, you’d given up the thing you most wanted.

It’s a line of dialogue from Edith Wharton’s The Age Of Innocence.

I love the line because it speaks to the novel’s primary tension, and it’s a beautiful sentiment but it’s not quite the truth in a gorgeously painful way.