All of Us with Our Pointless Worries and Inconsequential Dramas

From the author of Leaving London

This is your life and you may just recognize yourself within these seventeen short stories and six plays.

If you've ever been in a less than perfect relationship, been trapped in a meaningless job you hate, have found yourself drunk, lost and alone in a new city on Christmas Eve, or have simply spent years trying to escape from a situation of your own making, then you may just find some comfort within the pages of this book. These stories are for everyone who has ever felt as if they were an outsider, marching to the beat of their own drum and trying to discover some real meaning hidden within the cliche of modern life, love and work.

These are contemporary stories of doomed love affairs, cheating spouses and new beginnings in cities such as Paris, New York and London. A family dinner party where the ever-present elephant in the room threatens to reveal itself, girlfriends who leave, boyfriends who can't commit and one reclusive anti-hero fighting against a corporate giant all make an appearance within this collection of gritty and darkly humorous short stories.

This collection includes The Paris Quartet. Four interconnected stories dealing with a first date gone wrong, looking for an exit from a city/relationship in which you feel trapped, the end of a marriage and a family dinner marred by a threatening atmosphere.

"After the second hour my inner voice began - this has to stop soon. She's bound to run out of steam. No one can talk for this length without pausing. By the fourth hour that voice was pleading with me - Make this stop for the love of god. Why are you just sitting here listening? Actually, you're not even listening anymore; you're just nodding along when she pauses. I don't think you've actually said anything in two hours. Your eyes are dead. When hour six eventually arrived my face looked like a coat that had seen better days. A coat that someone had decided to leave at the back of the bus because it was beyond repair. I could barely move from the chair. I was exhausted, mentally and physically drained. She had water-boarded me with words. - The Conversationalists

A few weeks later I left Sophia's house and moved back to London. On my final day at work, Sophia bought me a goodbye drink. She seemed slightly drunk although it was only lunchtime. She handed the drink to me without saying a word and then left the pub. Her only email to me that afternoon, before I left for London, consisted of one word - coward. - The End of the Nineties

How did I get so old in this town? It was never like this in the city. I never felt old in the city but this town, this fucking town has the ability to suck the sunshine from the sky. This town with its many bridges. Bridges that seemed to recede the closer you got to them and may as well be brick walls or soundstage backdrops for all the good they did me. These bridges, with their illusion of escape, make me feel the ticking clock inside, every time I see them. But I can't see them, not from this room." - Anywhere But Here -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reviews

"All in all, this is a wonderful collection of short stories (and plays) which mine deeply emotional and personal territory, which is one of Crystal's major strengths as a writer. All of these stories are deeply relatable and hyper-realistic - you either know these characters or perhaps you have found yourself in these very same situations. Each of them leaves the reader with much more than what is on the surface - ala Ernest Hemingway and/or Raymond Carver - and will have you thinking about them long after you finish reading them." - Julian Gallo, author of Naderia and Europa. Expats Post"