Behind a mask a woman awaits oral surgery. Two students find unlikely solace in each other. A privileged immigrant misreads the signs. Lives and loves are cut into pieces by pandemic and loss.

The Girl Who Kept Her Shoes On, the first post-pandemic collection of stories from Charlotte Newings explores the disjointed ways we live and love today. Characters communicate – and miscommunicate – by any means available. Notes are scribbled; nudes are sent. Signals are separated from noise. Relationships are cut off, interrupted and curtailed, and surprising new possibilities emerge. Candid, poignant and hilarious, these stories dwell in the details, both lurid and mundane, of everyday life.