In Re-Connections, Miriam Drori explores the links that can form between people with varying results. Good or bad. Different or indifferent. Brief or long lasting. People can connect, disconnect, and re-connect.
I have enjoyed all of Miriam’s novels — Cultivating a Fuji, Loyalty and the Learner, Neither Here Nor There,andStyle and the Solitary — and the characters she created for each one. (She also wrote a non-fiction book, Social Anxiety Revealed.) The same is true for the characters that appear in this short story collection.
Certainly, a motivating factor for me has been Miriam’s strong writing. I found myself reading a sentence or a paragraph, and admiring how succinctly she expresses herself. Here is an example in the short story, Mimsy. “Teaching. One of the many jobs I could never envisage tackling myself. You had to know how to talk for that. I mean, talk with confidence and authority.” I never thought of it that way, but I did after reading those sentences.
I will share a few of the stories from Re-Connections.
In A Sticky Interview, a woman completes a Zoom meeting as part of the hiring process, but then must do one in person. She dreads the meeting because her disability makes it difficult for her to walk. She doesn’t reveal how that happened, except to say, “I will spare you the details and mention only this: the process is long and convoluted.” But unexpectedly, the potential employer understands what happened to her. I will let you find out why yourself.
In Who I Am, Sarah Levy has an unexpected connection — a sister she didn’t know existed until the woman rang her doorbell. Ah, but that’s only the start of a situation in which a deep family secret is revealed.
In Disunion, the character meets someone from her past. They reminisce about student life, which sounds like they might have had fun, but the ending makes you wonder. “They wished each other well and promised to come to the next reunion. She slipped out quietly and promised herself never to return.”
In Teamwork, Valentina, a tour guide for the wealthy, escorts Natasha, a blind woman, on a visit to Venice. But as their tour turns unexpectedly dangerous, the role of who is the helper is reversed because of Natasha’s keen sense of hearing.
Some stories are very short, just a few paragraphs, most are longer. Those with busy lives can enjoy one story, put the book or Kindle down, or move onto the next. Or they can be like me, and read the whole book in one sitting.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Miriam Drori, author, editor and social anxiety warrior, worked as a computer programmer and a technical writer before turning her attention to full-time writing. Her novels and short stories cover several genres, including crime, romance and uplit. She has also written a non-fiction book about social anxiety. Her short stories have appeared in various anthologies and several now form a new collection, called Re-Connections.
Born and raised in London, Miriam now lives in Tel Aviv having moved from Jerusalem, where the cozy crime mysteries are set. She has travelled widely, putting her discoveries to good use as settings in her writing. Her characters are not based on real people, but rather are formed from an amalgam of the many and varied individuals who have embellished her life. When not writing, Miriam enjoys reading, hiking, biking, dancing and touring.
AMAZON LINKS TO BUY RE-CONNECTIONS
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FN7MJHRN
WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Website/Blog: https://miriamdrori.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMiriamDrori
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@miriamdrori
Good Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/4829682.Miriam_Drori
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miriam.drori/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/miriam-drori
Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/MiriamDrori
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/miriamdrori.bsky.social
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Miriam-Drori/author/B00L11J6D4
