From the author of Leaving London

'What do you think the next life will be like'

"A disappointment, just like this one."

'Then why are you so intent on running towards it'

Why does a man with no beliefs begin to suspect that some greater power is controlling his life?

A series of near-death accidents and a personal tragedy leaves a traumatized man convinced that the responsibility for his life and death lies beyond his control.

A thoughtless left-turn one morning marks the beginning of a road trip to a remote, mountainous area of Norway. Before reaching this final destination an unexpected encounter with a face from the past brings a psychological struggle where recriminations, and guilt battle with apathy and an unwillingness to deal with or understand the past.

Red Lights is an exploration of death, loss, trauma, belief and non-belief, and how these factors can determine the path of your life.

"There are times when I imagine what it must have been like, submerged, floating below the surface, watching the sunlight sparkle across the water above. And every time I imagine it I sense peace, serenity. But that's perhaps a lie I tell myself, because death has never struck me as a particularly easy ride. That was the first time I almost died. It's the only memory I have of that holiday. And yet, even now, when I'm standing next to a lake or a sea or an ocean, and no matter how cold it is, the waters always look warm to me."

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Reviews for All of us with our Pointless Worries and Inconsequential Dramas

"All in all, this is a wonderful collection of short stories (and plays) which mine deeply emotional and personal territory, which is one of Crystal's major strengths as a writer. All of these stories are deeply relatable and hyper-realistic - you either know these characters or perhaps you have found yourself in these very same situations. Each of them leaves the reader with much more than what is on the surface - ala Ernest Hemingway and/or Raymond Carver - and will have you thinking about them long after you finish reading them." - Julian Gallo, author of Naderia and Breathe

Garry Crystal's title for his collection of short stories and one scene plays aptly summarizes a dominant theme at the same time that it seems to dismiss the content as near meaningless. Most of these narratives depict the all too common scene for thirty-something people in the big city; struggles at recovery from ruined relationships, lapses into sloth, alcohol, drugs, casual, sometimes barely civil, sexual encounters and, of course, depression that blankets these scenes of urban discontent like a grey, palpable fog. For all this, I could not dismiss as dreary cliche' this highly entertaining and thought provoking collection. It was fun to read and at some points, downright intriguing.

Dark humor and a conversational first person narrator style preserve the several stories of an alienated young urban male from triteness. Situations that, if our jaded narrator did not so masterfully depict them, might be all too familiar for interest. In "The Conversationalists", for example, he endures a mercifully short relationship with the beautiful, but totally self-absorbed Serena. It's the artful recreation of a scene that this reader and, I'm sure, many others have encountered in real life. The difference being that most of us do not in our suffering of a "me personality" interlocutor turn the encounter into a lively and entertaining short story. Those who enjoy nuanced meaning and dark ambiguities delivered by way of succinct narration and lively dialogue, these stories are the right stuff. - Online Book Club Organization

Cover image: Matthew Brodeur

Red Lights - pokkari, Englanti, 2019