Status Updates From Byron and Shelley

Worth requesting from NetGalley just for the story Mother Love, an incredibly moving depiction of a son looking after his mother who has dementia.

A very enjoyable book with an eclectic mix of stories set in different locations, with a predominance for Italy. All unique and all a very different, a nice collection to return to again and again. Recommended :)

“It’s a favourite sensation of his, the transition from smooth interminable tarmac to the jittery crunch of a gravel drive. It’s like the world suddenly becomes an intimate place again.”

“The known part of ourselves is a pathetic little creature compared with all that’s unknown within us.”

Somewhere at the back of your mind is a blueprint of the real life you feel you ought to be living. Now and again a moment from this life breaks through into the everyday.”

“This is the thing about songs. They are shooting stars that can take you back in time.”

Fabio and Eva: a man believes he has retrieved a past life memory of himself as a young Jewish German girl in Hamburg when the Nazis came to power.

Archaeology: a grieving husband who digs an archaeological trench in his garden to keep his two young daughters occupied and then forms the suspicion his wife was having an affair before she died.

If you're on netgalley this is definitely worth requesting if only for the incredibly moving Mother Love story.