Sand: A Tor.com Original

By Jasmin Kirkbride

"Sand" is a heart-wrenching tale about generational trauma and healing from Jasmin Kirkbride.

When Suzy was born, her parents filled her mouth with sand. But this is normal and natural and the way things are always done.

And if she finds it uncomfortable to keep it there, to eat with it there, to talk with it there, she's just going to have to learn to live with it.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Oct 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781250840745

Jasmin Kirkbride

Jasmin Kirkbride is a writer and editor. Her short fiction has appeared in publications including Open Pen and Fairlight Books, and she has published a handful of poems and peer-reviewed academic articles. She is currently working on a novel. By day, she is a PhD researcher and associate tutor at UEA, exploring hope and climate fiction. She has worked in publishing for several years and is a freelance editor and writing mentor alongside her studies. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from UEA and an MA in Ancient History from King’s College London.

Book preview

When I close my eyes, I can conjure the feeling – a smooth gum, wrinkling up as grit scours it. It’s so clear I can almost convince myself it’s a real memory, that I can really recall those rough grains steadily filling my mouth. I can’t. Of course. But the edge of the memory is there, as if the tendrils of my neurons were stretching out to each other across my fresh, pink brain. As if they knew that act would become my bedrock.

In that moment just after I was born, my parents filled my mouth with sand. They inserted a funnel between my lips and tipped it through. The sand trickled into the back of my throat, muffling my squeals, clustering over my tongue and toothless