"I took a few paces around the room, trying to work out the exact spot where the couch would have been. As I did so, I found I could only conjure up the haziest picture of what it had actually looked like - though I could recall quite vividly the feel of its silky fabric."

Kazuo Ishiguro, When We Were Orphans, Faber and Faber, London 2000, p.187