Recurring threads
The forty-nine stories stand alone, but some figures cross between them — a coffee vendor, a visitor from another planet, the Bosphorus and its ferries. And a cat, often, watching from the edge. For the cats, who knew all along.
Jade
The collection opens and closes with her — a woman who collected the sentences people use to leave.
Khalil, the coffee vendor
He pours, he watches, he remembers — or claims to. He stands at the edge of the leaving.
KEV-7
A visitor from Kepler-442b, mistaken for the dead, learning what it is to be a person three times over.
The Bosphorus & the ferries
The water that carries the leaving, and the boats that cross it without arriving.
Cartographers & maps
Those who try to chart what cannot be charted — sorrow, a city, a self about to leave it.