Two Children

A soul-collector reckons with fading friends. The creatures of a fantastical nation are abandoned and rewritten by their disillusioned Creator. A woman who considers reconciling with her estranged mother is held up in a train station by a mysterious teenager. A girl tries to stay in her out-of-time, sepia-colored town against her brother's wishes. A letter addressed to the reader ponders what's been left behind. And two girls engage in bitter competition over a prize.

Through each tale in this poignant short story collection, Katherine Ren unveils layers of whimsicality and surrealism to contemplate growth and the loss of innocence. She asks what is corporeal and what is not; what truly matters and not; all underpinned by a consistent backdrop of imaginative duality. "Two Children" is unafraid to strike out against the reader, to force us to look back, and inwards-to resolve.