Re-Connections by Miriam Drori #RECONNECTIONS

November 3, 2025 Melanie Leave a comment

Today on Celtic Connexions, I’m sharing two excerpts from Miriam Drori’s collection of short stories, Re-Connections.

Blurb

Why are we attracted to certain individuals and repelled by others? Why do we fall out of contact with former friends, or fall out with them altogether? Why do we crave friendship?

The answers to these questions are many and varied, and some of them reveal themselves in the stories of this collection. Not all these connections desire to lead to friendship; some are business-related. Yet, even those connections work better with friendly comments and gestures. What happens to people who struggle with such social norms? Are they destined to remain friendless?

Without realising it, Miriam Drori has been interested in this topic for many years. That’s evident in the fact that these tales were written throughout her writing career. Some of them are completely or partly autobiographical, while others are purely fictional. Which ones are which is a question she declines to answer.

Buy Link

AMAZON –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FN7MJHRN

Excerpts

This excerpt, from the story called “One Thing Leads to Another”, shows how the narrator’s troubles began.

It was great to be able to escape the nest for a while and go off to uni. I had a whale of a time from morning to night – well, mostly night and hardly any mornings. I missed most of my lectures and flunked my exams. They made me take the first year again. I fully intended to tell Mum and Dad about that. It was just that I wanted to do it in my own time and not when they came to take me home for the vacs, and in front of my mates – even though my mates knew.

“How did your exams go?” Mum asked as I heaved my case into the car boot.

“I passed with flying colours,” I said, laughing.

The mates who’d gathered round laughed, too. Heartily. I thought even Mum would understand the joke.

When we arrived home, I took the case upstairs and unpacked. And I decided I’d better let her know the worst. As I came downstairs, I realised I was too late. Mum was on the phone. I heard her say, “Oh yes. He passed with flying colours. He told me so today.”

This excerpt is from the story called “Who I Am”. A strange woman is standing on the narrator’s doorstep.

“Are you Sarah Levy?” she asked in English, pronouncing Sarah the British way to rhyme with airer.

“Yes…”

The woman smiled. “I’m Dina, your sister.” She spread out her arms as if she expected me to release the chain and hug her. A long-forgotten letter came to mind. At the time, I’d torn it up, never expecting the writer to turn up in person.

“I’m sorry, but you’ve made a mistake. I don’t have a sister.” I expected her to look despondent, especially after having dragged that body up four floors. There are advantages and disadvantages to having a common name. It’s easy to hide behind it. Mistaken identity is one of the disadvantages.

The woman didn’t look despondent. Her frown and partly open mouth reflected shock. “You mean they didn’t tell you?”

About Miriam

Miriam

Miriam Drori, author, editor and social anxiety warrior, worked as a computer programmer and a technical writer before turning her attention to full-time writing. Her novels and short stories cover several genres, including crime, romance and uplit. She has also written a non-fiction book about social anxiety. Her short stories have appeared in various anthologies and several now form a new collection, called Re-Connections.

Born and raised in London, Miriam now lives in Tel Aviv having moved from Jerusalem, where the cosy crime mysteries are set. She has travelled widely, putting her discoveries to good use as settings in her writing. Her characters are not based on real people, but rather are formed from an amalgam of the many and varied individuals who have embellished her life.

When not writing, Miriam enjoys reading, hiking, biking, dancing and touring.