Confined to his home in Cambridge and facing his final days at an earlier-than-expected age, Clive James began to experience a new way of living: ''His world had shrunk to this room and that terrace. He never went anywhere, saw almost nobody, could eat almost nothing - and yet, every aspect of his life was filled with meaning. The fact that there was an apple on that tree. Everything was extraordinary.''
Cole Moreton''s meeting with Clive James is one of eighteen beautifully written true short stories that, taken together, explore what it means to be fully human in these fractured times.
The encounters we have with others all have a deep meaning, because the way that we live, love and reach out for connection with each other, with ourselves, with the natural world and with the divine, give us a greater understanding that we cannot be humans on our own. As Desmond Tutu says: ''I couldn''t be a human being on my lonesome, I wouldn''t know what to do.''
