Non-Random People

Can random encounters affect fate? Can a stranger make you reconsider the correctness of your own decisions? Definitely yes. And Masha Traub’s new book “Not-Accidental People,” consisting of the short novel “By Fate” and a collection of novellas about the most diverse human destinies, proves it. The heroes of this book are the most ordinary people, with their joys and sorrows. But one day in each of their lives happens an event—maybe small in scale, yet one that changes a lot, if not everything, in how they see their own fate. And it turns out that there are no accidental people in the characters’ destinies—they are all not accidental.

Masha Traub’s prose is therapeutic reading: everyone can recognize themselves in the heroes of the book, their circumstances, and understand that everything can be fixed.