Abstract

Before You Say You’re Leaving is a collection of four short fictions that explores human reactions to loss, isolation, and loneliness. The stories follow their protagonists as they navigate and interpret grief in their own way. By examining these different characters’ reactions to an event of loss, whether it be the loss of a loved one, a relationship, or an established sense of selfhood, the collection is meant to explore how people create meaning in their own lives through close relationships, and how or whether that meaning can be reinterpreted or re-established after the event of loss.