There’d never before been a woman president of the American Society of Hand Surgeons, and Martha was to be the first. She had not been elected: an aneurysm had ruptured in the president’s brain, and neither the vice president nor the chair wanted the job. As treasurer, Martha was third in line. She would be inducted in Omaha, at the annual meeting, where she’d give a little speech. She paid for her daughter Jules to fly from New England to Nebraska to join her.
The last time Martha traveled with her daughter was when she’d dropped her off at college. That was four years ago, when Jules was planning to study linguistics. The memory was disjointed: she had snarled at Martha in a Bed Bath & Beyond, then they’d eaten bowls of lukewarm mussels in a restaurant with checkered tablecloths. Now Jules was a senior and lived with five other girls in a hundred-year-old house the color of Pepto-Bismol. All the furniture in the pink house came from the girls’ parents. Martha had offer
Defekt is Nino Cipri’s second novella set in the world(s) of LitenVärld, a fictionalized IKEA, following
Finna (2020) but perfectly readable as a stand-alone. While Jules does pop up in the background at the start of the book, our protagonist for this frightful multidimensional excursion is Derek: an employee whose loyalty to the LitenVärld family is unparalleled, whose living space is a shipping container at the backlot of the store and who’s never taken a sick day… until he starts coughing blood unexpectedly.
But the perfect employee shouldn’t need time off. Calling out sick leads Derek to be assigned to a special inventory team for a locked-in night of hunting defective products, like toy chests that have grown pincers and eyestalks, but that’s not even the strangest part. The honor of peak weirdness goes to the visiting inventory team, a set of four strangers who look and sound (almost) identical to him.
Ginny and her son Zak He s growing up way too quickly, but on the plus side, I can now borrow his cool trainers! Build a ladder to the stars my love. I m so proud to be your Mama.
Jonnie Irwin
Jonnie Irwin shares three children with his wife, Jessica, who he married in 2016: two-year-old Rex and twin boys Cormac and Rafa who they welcomed last year.
Speaking to HELLO! about having three young sons at home back in December, Jonnie, 47, said: It s been quite a rollercoaster. You could say I left it all quite late in life. A mate of mine said: Jonnie Irwin, late starter, big finisher, and that is about right!