Patience

By Toby Litt

Meet Elliott.

Elliott is hugely intelligent. He’s an incredible observer. He has a beautiful and unusual imagination. To know him is to adore him.

But Elliott is also stuck. He lives in an orphanage in 1979. He spends his days in a wheelchair, in an empty corridor, or wherever the Catholic Sisters who run the ward have decided to park him.

So when Jim, blind and mute but also headstrong, arrives on the ward and begins to defy the Sisters’ restrictive rules, Elliott finally sees a chance for escape. Together, they could achieve a magnificent freedom – if only for a few hours.

But how can Elliott, unable to move or speak clearly, communicate all this to Jim? How can he even get Jim to know he exists?

Patience is a remarkable story of love and friendship, courage and adventure. It is also about finding joy in the most unlikely of settings. Elliott and Jim are going to have fun.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Galley Beggar Press
• Release date: Sep 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781913111052

Toby Litt

Toby Litt grew up in Ampthill, Bedfordshire. He is the author of four collections of stories and eight novels. His latest book of stories is Life-Like, published by Seagull Press. Toby’s completion of Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel, Free Country: A Tale of the Children’s Crusade, is due from Vertigo in September 2015. He teaches creative writing at Birkbeck College. His website is at www.tobylitt.com.