Somewhere
in the World

Begin here

The prologue

While we live our own year, what is the rest of the world doing? The prologue to Somewhere in the World: twelve ordinary lives in twelve real places, one story a month, from October to September.

Read the prologue →

The twelve stories

From October to September

Each place is real; each person and each day is imagined. The seasons are the real ones: October in Bulgaria is autumn, July in Chile is winter, and September at McMurdo is the return of the light.

1. October 2026 · Plovdiv, BulgariaThe Same Apartment

   Next · OctoberFirst pages
2. November 2026 · Kolkata, IndiaBefore the City Wakes

   November
3. December 2026 · Ilulissat, GreenlandThe Day Without Sunrise

   December
4. January 2027 · Chicago, United StatesA Day Without a Schedule

   January
5. February 2027 · Osaka, JapanA Tuesday Like Any Other

   February
6. March 2027 · Chengdu, ChinaThree Generations Under One Roof

   March
7. April 2027 · Nizwa, OmanAfter the Morning Errands

   April
8. May 2027 · Porto, PortugalThe Afternoon Off

   May
9. June 2027 · Dakar, SenegalThe Visit That Wasn’t Planned

   June
10. July 2027 · Valparaíso, ChileThe Window Facing the Sea

    July
11. August 2027 · Yogyakarta, IndonesiaAn Evening to Herself

    August
12. September 2027 · McMurdo Station, AntarcticaWhen the Light Returns

    September

×

October 2026 · Plovdiv, Bulgaria

The Same Apartment

First pages

She had no idea what her daughter wanted to discuss, although she suspected it involved money.

The kettle clicked off. Downstairs, the man had abandoned his pile of leaves and was talking to someone beside the entrance.

It was Tuesday, and she was already running late.

The full storyOctober 2026Get it by email when it is published

The images are illustrations created to evoke each place and season. They are not photographs of real streets or people.

The method

How the year will unfold

1. One story a month.Each follows one person through one ordinary day, in a real place and that month’s real season. About 4,000 words; some shorter, some longer.
2. Real places, imagined people.Streets, transport, weather, work and routines are researched with care. These are not interviews, reports or accounts of my own travels.
3. A person, not a country.A woman in Kolkata does not stand for India, and a retired man in Osaka does not explain Japan. Each life belongs to one family, one street, one generation.
4. No heroes, no moral.A modest tension is enough. Some stories will be funny, some quiet, some slightly frustrating. Nobody has to be reconciled before the last paragraph.
5. October to September.Twelve months, twelve places. When the year closes, the twelve lives will sit side by side as one portrait of the same world.

The calendar becomes the book’s clock, not its subject. The twelve lives are its substance.