Eight doctors struggle to save a dying baby—until a ragged boy points to the child’s neck and says something no one dares believe

by himself.

The route was twenty minutes, through the market square and past the old post office and along the canal path where the trees were doing their autumn work, losing their leaves with the specific indifferent abundance of trees that had no interest in the feelings of observers.

He had memorized the route the day before, on Sunday, while Richard’s continue reading …