Transient Visitors

Transient Visitors is a collection of short pieces by David O'Boyle, issued in two volumes titled Book 1, Month 1 and Book 2, Month 2. Each piece stands alone as a separate vignette, and together they cover every kind of situation, whether set on our planet or under other suns.

Book 1 was written before the pandemic, when readers and writers could take ordinary routines for granted and assume that the next opportunity would come around again. Book 2 was written during the COVID years, when those assumptions no longer held. Its stories return to many of the same themes as Book 1, but the writing changed. The pieces are rawer and more daring, with less polish and more spontaneity.

The author compares the two volumes to a server who offers a small bite at a party: Book 2 does not tidy itself up before serving, so readers get something cheerful that is also a little untidy. The author sees this rougher quality as one of the few gifts the pandemic gave these stories, despite its many harms.