A lethal plague sweeps the globe. Millions have died. Survivors are confined to their homes. Gabriel passes his time in a small New York apartment on the city's Upper West Side. During the plodding solitude of the lockdown, he observes several strangers in their nearby apartments. As he watches them struggle to survive a world at risk of extinction, he wonders about their lives--where they're from, what they value, how they're coping with a deadly...

Presents a collection of short stories originally commissioned by "The New York Times Magazine" as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world, from twenty-nine authors including Margaret Atwood, Tommy Orange, Edwidge Danticat, and more, in a project inspired by Boccaccio's "The Decameron."

"Gazing out his picture window high above the Central Park Reservoir, former Wall Street veteran Ridley spots a flashing light in an apartment across the park, as if a lonely person is signaling him. His determination to find out who this mystery woman is leads him on a quest that will tempt him with either delusional madness or the fulfillment of his own mythic fate. Ridley leaves the safety of his apartment window to save the femme fatale and descends...

"Love and marriage. Children and family. Death and grief. Life touches everyone the same. But living under lockdown, it changes us alone. In these ten beautifully moving short stories written mostly over the last year, Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle paints a collective portrait of our strange times. A man abroad wanders the stag-and-hen-strewn streets of Newcastle, as news of the virus at home asks him to question his next move. An exhausted nurse...