A beautiful young woman walks into Hoad's gallery to admire a jade vase, and Hoad's life changes forever; Ray watches an insurmountable horror take place and wreaks simple and profound revenge; after her paraplegic father dies, a middle-aged woman finds herself in a solicitor's office, cataloguing her memories... In the pages of Hoad and other stories, quiet and complex yearnings for change and transformation are revealed in sometimes mysterious, sometimes fantastical, but always surprising ways. Sarah Passingham's debut collection is beautifully written, and she makes even the everyday actions of three people's lives seem elegant.