Chiaroscuro

Bookshelves are windows into family histories – which books find a home on the shelves, how the stacks are organised, which books are well-worn, and unopened, the ideas contained in the inscriptions. Family bonds form in different ways and for book-lovers, the web of stories that spreads out across their bookshelves is one way. In my bookshelves, there are many webs and one is a messy web that started to take shape as I began my role in child-rearing, a role that comes to a sort of end this year. I will always be a parent but Imran, my son, is no longer a child. At 16, he is about to embark on one of his first completely independent journeys - finishing high school far away from home, weaving webs that will grow on his independent book-shelves. There is a line that Marquez wrote in one of...