Publisher's Synopsis
Volunteering provides a young woman with an opportunity to begin healing after her best friend's death as she buys exotic fruit for an elderly widow sheltered by the door of her flat, pretends characters from classical literature are her friends, and finally verbalizes the weight of her grief. The inflamed fingertips of a woman distancing herself not only from society, but also from the aching reality of the drastically halted world unearth the grounds for recovery within the stirring spring soil. Stuck in lockdown and getting on each other's nerves, childhood best friend fall in love and are forced to reconsider their past as well as their present.
From a reunited family learning to bridge the unspoken gaps that had separated them through a cashier rendered a barman-like figure discussing the matters of kittens, maths and self-worth with her customers to a stranger almost fully veiled by a facemask transforming the life of a stranger almost fully veiled by nostalgic negativity, these stories centre on the lives entangled in the unpredictability and malice of the global pandemic. The collection is a vivid gamut of mundane wonders, a display of human resilience as well as an affirmation of individual uniqueness, offering idiosyncratic and uplifting perspectives on the world in crisis. A tribute to those who remain hopeful, these stories are accounts of humanity and compassion at times forgotten and often concealed by the overwhelming numbers and statistics pervasively defining our era; they are embodiments of the healing we are capable of, and, most importantly, they are explorations of the fragile and exquisite concerns and joys permeating each individual life even in times like these.
