About a quarter of the way through every story in this collection, I’d be overcome with a deep feeling of sadness & dread for what lies ahead. They all feature the sick, the hopeless, or the dead, in a  bleak and inevitable everyday sense that makes you ask “Oh god, will this be me one day?”.

I’d find myself pausing, emotionally overwhelmed, questioning if I even wanted to continue - or would this story leave me feeling too depressed &  mortal?

But every time, I pushed on, and very quickly the story would grow wings, do a dance, and wind up so clever, charming and funny, that I’d scold myself for ever questioning whether I could handle it.

A really beautiful collection of stories about normal women, and their normal lives, who always have more in their tanks than anyone would ever give them credit for.