Short Story Collection · 2023
City of Small Hours
Nine tales of connection in the modern city — night-shift nurses, last-train strangers and the neighbours we almost know.
About the collection
Millions live stacked on top of each other and still manage to feel alone — that is the riddle at the heart of City of Small Hours. Across nine stories, insomniacs and early risers cross paths in laundromats, night buses, hospital corridors and one unforgettable rooftop pigeon coop.
The collection was written between 2019 and 2022, much of it during night walks with a notebook. Shortlisted for the Harbor Prize, it has been praised for dialogue that “crackles like a radio left on overnight” and endings that arrive like the last train — right on time, gone too soon.
Stories included
- —Laundromat at 2 a.m. — two strangers, one dryer
- —The Night Bus Confessional — a driver who listens
- —Pigeons of Marlowe Street — a rooftop truce
- —Shift Change — nurses at dawn
- —The Last Open Diner — a proposal, twice
- —…and three more
