A young girl discovers that riding a bike is more than simply learning balance…A village is commandeered by the army for target practice…A drive south for the summer becomes a journey through language to an inner place…An unassuming young man is driven to murder…Weaving together compassion and acute observation with a fine ear for the nuance of identity and nationality, Isabelle Llasera’s debut short story collection is serious, humorous, tragic and inspiring by turns. Sometimes intimate, sometimes cast against broader backdrops, these stories show that the private and personal are always present. Smog demonstrates, time and again, that the big things in our lives are always less important than our fundamental humanity.
