When I learnt that I could download (temporarily for free) a short story by Anne Brooke, I jumped at the opportunity. It’s been a while since I started reading her blog, but I’ve never read fiction (except once a haibun) from her, and I was secretly curious to see how the e-book purchase was working (I’m not exactly a techno buff, you know). I hoped for something longer and I was a bit disappointed by the form (I have no fancy e-reader, so I got the .pdf file, which is a bit “dry”), but the story itself was memorable and satisfying.

Travelling in a foreign (Southern European) country, Jacob, a rather naïve and dull young man, notices a woman simply eating a banana. She’s not beautiful, but her intense and provoking attitude of taking all the pleasure she can from a very simple food seduces him into a torrid affair. Over the meetings on the derelict harbour flat’s where she apparently lives, he won’t really get to know her but he’ll learn to appreciate life with all his senses. The story is quite sensual and mysterious, it reminds me of the sweet and heavy perfume of a summer night in Italy. I’m thinking of preparing  fruit salads right now!

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