"Brick Lane Bookshop story anthology (2020)"

Their competition longlist of 12 from 1134 entries.

• The Closed Door (Alice Haworth-Booth) - Rona (rather shy and passive) helps with protest group activities, trying to stop the end of the world. She meets Joe while giving out leaflets. He's an Environmental Officer or something. He's about to become a father. He's no longer with the mother. Rona and Joe start living together with the baby, Brenda. Rona feels that she's losing control of her own future. I like the ending - fragmentary, with speculations/glimpses of Brenda's future.
• To Those Born Later (Kieran Toms) - Tam, a quiet youth who ponders on the nature of time, is in a white van of drinkers in Scotland, heading for some remote location. His father owned a local vineyard. Now Tan works for a rival. A girl, Annie, chats to him. Global warning has happened. Tan's brother had died in a sudden flood. His father's dead too. They reach their destination - a curfew-defying rave, set in a ruined church. "the authorities spray green curfew dust up into the air. It drifts out over abandoned towns" and sticks to clothing. As the church bells ring for one last time, people in turn (Tam included) hold up photos of their many dead loved ones - victims of sicknesses, suicide, floods. Atmospheric.
• Fix (K. Lockwood Jefford) - a teenager goes missing. By following a few interconnected lives (with the help of reportage) we learn about the place and how teenagers live.
• Small Differences (Huma Qureshi) - Tasneen is with partner Simon and his parents on a holiday in Tuscany. It's hot. She moved from Pakistan to London when she was 25. Her mother fixed her up remotely with suitable dates. She met Simon via books. In the village market she buys a book she's always wanted. In the evening as usual, she rather resents the parents being there, especially the family chit-chat, and goes to bed early. Woken in the night by thunder she looks out and sees the book on the garden table. Why did nobody bring it in? Unexceptional.
• No Phones at the Dinner Table (Jack Houston) - The girl narrator is drawing and trying to keep up with social media while her father's cooking. Her 3 years older anorexic (and self-harming) sister will soon join them. Their eldest sister from university will be arriving by train. Her mother died when she was 3. Tonight, her father's steady girlfriend will attend. At the end the sister appears with a boyfriend. The only punctuation used are question marks and apostrophes. First lines of paragraphs are indented by nearly a page-width. I don't see much in it.
• Chameleon (Rea Dennhardt) - The 9 year-old narrator Leila's family near Dar es Salaam gets a visit from an aunt because it's the funeral of Leila's father soon. Shabani, the cook, brings in a dead kitten that Leila and the cook's son Justice have dyed (its mother having neglected it because it was the wrong colour). We learn that the aunt's from London, that the mother has a philosophy degree that the aunt thinks is being wasted. They're both white. Leila "Felt sorry for this woman who may have to spend the rest of her days living in an unhappily ordered world of better and worse people". In a kitchen accident Justice burns his hand. The mother has to bribe to get him medicine. Leila has a chameleon, Cally. "Do you think Cally feels green or just looks green?" The 2 children experiment by putting Cally against various backgrounds. "What if we make her a colour we think is sad but inside she feels happy". The aunt takes Leila to the mall and puts make-up on her. Leila objects, the sisters argue, and the aunt takes an early flight home, missing the cremation. I liked the story until the skin symbolism became too heavy handed.
• Night Classes (Lucy Sweeney Bryne) - 4 years into their marriage, Irish Laura, 34, tells her husband that she doesn't want kids. They live in Chicago. She doesn't like how Americans exaggerately celebrate their Irish origins. Her husband Hal tries hard - in so many ways he's the perfect husband. She begins to think there might really be something wrong with her, that she's cold. He doesn't pressurize or gaslight. She feels like rebelling, getting wasted. I'm not convinced by the piece.
• The Bhootham in the Mango Tree (Rajasree Variyar) - The narrator is a woman. Her mother is Malayalam. She with her father, visiting family in South India. Before long they'll return to London. The mother's refused to come. They all go to the cinema. The father disappears. He's found back home under a tree. He's been telling a tale about something being buried there. Maybe it's true. I like the story.
• Sharing Time (Gemma Reeves) - While Vicky's college-age son is in hospital (in a 6-month coma, victim of street violence and acid attack), her sister Barbara has decided to stay. Vicky visits the hospital each day, meeting various of his friends. Naomi's daughter is in the next bed. Vicky collects cuttings about acid attacks (some - perhaps too many - reproduced here) and goes through her son's playlists/browser-history, etc. Barbara questions her collecting. I'd have preferred fewer cuttings and more interaction.
• The Bread Man (Kevin Dyer) - We know what's happening, but not why or where, though "Yesterday the hospital was targeted" and "the streets empty except for men with guns" give a clue. Syria maybe. A man, a foreigner, is showing starving people in a disused garage how to make bread. He's a bit of a showman. In the past he brought people water.
• Spiders (Andrea Watts) - A woman from abroad has come to London hoping that her daughter will join her and have a better life. She's a cleaner and sandwich-maker. Thanks to a friend she has cheap accommodation. Life's precarious though. She sees ducks on a canal - "Lime-green plants had gathered thickly enough to form an island they could walk on. I wondered if it was safe for them to build a nest". Spiders appear in the story - over her bed, under a stone (a nursery of them) and in art.
• Via del Tramvai (Han Smith) - Some Italian youths, awaiting the results of their final school exams, decide to visit the local villas. They recall visiting them with their families. They're wondering about the rest of their lives, how their relationships will continue. The sight of 2 gay tourists opens up the possibility of coming out. I don't understand the significance of the section headings

Short and original ideas got better prizes than longer, orchestrated pieces.