The Goldfish Chronicle is a darkly whimsical, bittersweet collection of short stories and monologues that peers into the fragility of everyday existence through surreal lenses, talking fish, disappearing realities, and humans who are forever circling their own emotional aquariums. Blending sharp humor with existential reflection, the book captures people on the edge of themselves – those who wait for a change that never arrives, chase truths that bend like mirrors, or crumble quietly under the weight of routine.
The collection unfolds in three parts:
Part A – Reflections
Here, the mundane becomes mythic. A goldfish delivers five monologues about captivity and the illusions that keep us swimming; a man who hasn’t looked in a mirror for twenty-one years is forced to confront his own neglected reflection; a woman dissolves into the broken rhythm of a creaking carousel; and dreamers, liars, and would-be prophets stumble through the gaps between who they think they are and who they’ve become.
Part B – Distorted Reality
Reality wavers, vanishes, and reforms in strange ways. A consultant helps rebrand fear itself; a circus built on nothing becomes the most honest show in town; a man hovers between truth and illusion as the world around him dissolves into screens and slogans; and characters lose themselves—literally—between sofas, mirrors, and memories.
Part C – Inner Gaze
These stories turn inward. An old man shares tea and philosophy with the angel of death; cancer patients form jazz bands with cosmic bureaucrats; relationships unravel and reform in hesitant, human steps; and characters search for meaning in the smallest gestures, from a cup of coffee to a breath on the edge of the unknown.
Across its pages, The Goldfish Chronicle uses absurdity, melancholy, humor, and poetic restraint to explore the quiet tragedies and stubborn hopes that define modern life. It is a book about being trapped and yearning to break free, about the lies we tell ourselves to survive, and about the rare moments when we finally dare to look in the mirror.
