The Names

The Names

Author: Florence Knapp Listening Length: 9h 36m

The extraordinary novel that asks: Can a name change the course of a life? In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son’s birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends fo...

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Gordon

“Go on.”

He sensed this as the moment he’d pushed it too far. “The bill, please,” his father had said to the waiter. And then he’d sat staring into space and it was as though a shutter had come down.

He wants to explain, but realizes he can’t even explain it to himself, except that he has always wanted to be called Luke.

Outside the classroom, he sits against the wall, pinching at the birthmark on his forearm, watching as its misshapen heart outline disappears and reforms, disappears and reforms.