The World Is Small: Short Stories from a Long Life

The world is “close” not because there are nearly 8 billion people in it. Honestly, there’s still plenty of space on Earth where reasonable people can live peacefully without bumping into one another. But who am I to decide the fate of the world? It matters to me to sort out my own fate—one where, in the small space of a life, the people who left me and the living ones who continue to crowd around are all gathered: my relatives, friends, colleagues, and strangers who accidentally ended up in my world. As long as my memory doesn’t fail me, I decided to remember them—some with gratitude, some, alas, with reproach… In short stories from a long life, it’s hard to tell everything I wanted to say to those who might have found my experience useful. But my world is “close,” and I remembered mostly those who were near. In this book, words are close together and memories are wide.