As much as we are giving as readers, we are also letting ourselves go. When we allow ourselves to be hypnotised by a story, we dissolve our identities and adopt many others. It is an exercise of profound empathy, which is why reading enriches us so deeply. Unmoored from our bodies, we drift towards new possibilities and perspectives. We are confronted by new experiences, new predicaments, new emotions, new people. It is impossible to open a book and not meet somebody new. And in their company, we might find ourselves exposed to the shocking and mystifying and unfamiliar. But for those readers who feel displaced, misunderstood, marginalised, confused, dismayed or isolated in the real world, in a fictional landscape they might stumble across their own reflection. They might recognise themselves.…
