Love Stories: And 2024 Other Love Stories by Brouckaert, Justin NEUF

In the world of Love Stories, the seams of reality have been subtly loosened. Anteater professors battle impostor syndrome, trains search for soulmates, and men grow taller and taller until their heads scrape the stars. A frustrated young couple resorts to communicating only through the exchange of exotic fruit, until guava is all that matters. An astronaut touches down on a foreign planet, only to realize that the alien world mirrors Earth. Brouckaert, in this singularly imaginative debut collection, evokes a universal yearning, a raw desire, a pang of nostalgia, an ache in your chest that comes when you find yourself cleaved from your lover, from your people, from the place you call home.