Current Affairs

by Cairo Smith

The city, love, and other traps.

From author Cairo Smith comes a tender, sincere society novel for the 21st century, surging with a modernist romantic spirit and all the heartaches of youth.

Calvin Munn is a good man. He left his Iowa hometown to chase Manhattan dreams, dead-set on art school and an advertising career. Now, he stands on a Honolulu veranda, on the precipice of thirty and feeling like a kid all over again. Madeline Payne, his childhood friend, his muse, waits just feet away and yet beyond reach. How did he screw it all up this bad?

A decade earlier, Calvin meets Madeline just once, as a high school senior. From there, he sets off for New York, entwining himself in a complicated marriage with an Egyptian-American socialite who is hiding her double life from her father, Calvin’s boss.

Career turns, rich friends, and new heartaches all compound. Madeline, married to a rising country star, haunts Calvin as their lives thread together and apart again and again.

It may take a shock to finally end the pattern.

326 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 6, 2025

About the author

Cairo Smith is a screenwriter, director, and author living in Los Angeles. He writes stories of adventure and esoteric worlds, and dreams of a dynamic, vital future. You can follow his work via his online publication, Futurist Letters, and find him on Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd.

Reviews

[Denise Robbins]

This was great. How did he write this so soon after Scenebux?? Clearly talented. Longer review TK

[Ellen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a relatable book for the current times we live in. I enjoyed Calvin’s character and the author did a great job of putting us right in his shoes. His struggles with his career and relationships kept my attention. The relationship between him and Madeline is something I could relate to for a number of reasons. This journey of ups and downs drew me in until the last page. This is a must read in contemporary fiction! I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Desi Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

Current affairs follows Calvin from high school to 29 years. It is a story of starts, mistakes, and starting again. Cal was an interesting character to read. He seems so genuine and talented, but life had a way of turning from his intended path. Parallel to many of our own lives, where there is not often a simple happy ending.

This was an emotional book, in the end I was proud of Cal for his choices, even the ones that caused him pain.

Thank you for the arc Hidden Gems Books and Cairo Smith, this is a voluntary review.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

He had big hopes and dreams when he left home to become his dreams. Unfortunately life is not going to go the way he had expected and things get turned all around him. See where it will all take him
I received an advance copy from hidden gems and a thoughtful read

[Angie Hardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was a good book. I liked it. I was given an arc and i choose to give a honest review.