Neda Alaei

Catching Air

How many lies can you keep track of?

I disappear into your arms,

The only thing you can catch is air.

Samia is no longer invisible, but that’s not all her new friends at high school need to know. They don’t need to know about Kristoffer, her nerdy best friend. They don’t need to know that Samia doesn’t really know how to hug. They definitely shouldn’t know about Mum, who wants both of them to be best friends, who hides the key to the bathroom, and who doesn’t let Samia sleep alone. How many lies can you keep track of?

Catching air is a story about a claustrophobic, clammy and suffocating mother-daughter relationship, and about how difficult it is to break out and become your own person.