Hot Kitchen Snow (Paperback)

Typically we lie to each other four times a day and the commonest lie told is, 'I'm fine.' The characters in Hot Kitchen Snow go one step further: they lie to themselves. This collection explores the gap between how others see us and how we see ourselves. Teenage Euan is guest of honour at a mystery funeral; teacher Joseph Mutabe gives up a lifetime's morals to earn extra money for a new sofa by tutoring the children of a military dictator; door-to-door dog-food seller Greg sets out to find the girl whose life he once saved, to lessen his sense of failure. The tiny everyday shifts and decisions that account for some of life's biggest developments are charted here, often represented by an emblematically charged scrap from nature: In 'Life Pirates' a lecherous drunk steals a rare sapling for a suicidal woman; in 'Mango', an exotic fruit reunites a family after near-lethal electric shock; a fall of snow from a skylight reminds a city banker of everything he lacks in 'Hot Kitchen Snow', and in 'Odissi Dancing', scarlet chrysanthemums sewn into a fat college administrator's hair by her affectionate pupils assure her of what she never knew she had. Here the bad do good and the pious wreak havoc. No one is as they seem or as they think they are. Ultimately, Hot Kitchen Snow is a collection about the restorative powers in life, about warmth, forgiveness and acceptance.