Long Distance

A poignant, quietly arresting collection about the fragile threads that bind us across time, space, and memory.

From Aysegül Savas, acclaimed author of The Anthropologists, comes Long Distance—a debut story collection that explores intimacy and alienation in the age of global mobility and digital connection.

In Rome, a researcher anticipates reuniting with her long-distance partner, only to be unsettled by how much he’s changed—or how much she has. During a brief layover, an expat reconnects with a childhood friend whose quiet satisfaction with life feels unexpectedly foreign. And a newly pregnant woman, navigating the unspoken rules of early motherhood, seizes a vulnerable moment to mend a fractured friendship.

With precision and grace, Savas turns her lens on characters who have left one life behind in search of another—by choice, more often than necessity. Through brief encounters and lingering absences, Long Distance captures the ache of in-betweenness and the deep, sometimes disorienting pull of the people and places we try to hold onto.