A tale of two books

The Sunday Times Literary Award winners in their chosen extracts

Sunday Times Fiction Award: The Spiral House Sunday by Claire Robertson

''The elder girl sat at one end of a stone bench. I handed Le Voir a length of twine that had been run through soft tallow and he draped this on his shoulder at the ready. De Buys said, 'Rachel' and she untied the ribbon on her bonnet and lifted it from her head, releasing an abundance of auburn hair. Le Voir dug his hands into the crown of it, spreading it in the slanting morning light. He separated a bunch about the thickness of a candle and tied it off, then had the big shears from my hand and cut above the cord. He handed the hank to me where I stood out of the girl's sight.

It reached from my hand to below my elbow and was heavy as oiled silk.

The harvest from Rachel was three lengths, and three from Hannah. We had brought no mirror and for certain there was no such at their home but each girl saw her own head in the other's and then the tears spilled.''