First published 2014
A woman sits with her widowed lover, finally ready to untangle the knots of her family's past. She has kept these secrets locked away, but now the words spill out, revealing complications that reshape everything between them. In another story, a man who has spent decades chasing women faces a crisis that goes far beyond the typical midlife reckoning. A third woman enters a medical procedure for sterilization that becomes something entirely unexpected and surreal. These characters navigate the strange territory between what they want and what they actually need. Their daily lives contain moments both ridiculous and ordinary, where nothing unfolds as anticipated. Each story reveals how people wrestle with desires that don't make sense, even to themselves. The collection shows how the most mundane circumstances can suddenly turn absurd, and how the most intimate revelations can emerge from the most unexpected places.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-driven, slice-of-life
Period: 21st-century
240 pages · Kindle Edition · Open Road Media