In the world of
Love Stories
, the seams of reality have been subtly loosened. Anteater professors battle impostor syndrome, trains search for soulmates, and men grow taller and taller until their heads scrape the stars. A frustrated young couple resorts to communicating only through the exchange of exotic fruit, until guava is all that matters. An astronaut touches down on a foreign planet, only to realize that the alien world mirrors Earth. Brouckaert, in this singularly imaginative debut collection, evokes a universal yearning, a raw desire, a pang of nostalgia, an ache in your chest that comes when you find yourself cleaved from your lover, from your people, from the place you call home.