*Core Life Endeavours? Connie thinks. What are Core Life Endeavours? Is changing into elasticised pants a Core Life Endeavour?* **Wry, real and astute, these linked stories are from an exciting new talent.** Mel’s ‘failing at a stupid, screwed-up sales job, selling stupid plastic shelving’. Her days at Pacific Wave Plastics are numbered. Vic bikes through Christchurch collecting mementoes from the houses she has lived in, while her ex-partner Emma makes the decision to move to Auckland to work at . . . a plastics factory. And so the chain continues: characters connect obliquely or walk from one story to the next, often oblivious to each other yet united by their daily struggle to negotiate relationships while they try to survive employment, or avoid it, or face getting fired. ‘An utterly absorbing experience that reminded me of Elizabeth Strout’s wonderful Olive Kitteridge. I kept catching my breath as I came across familiar detail presented with a fresh and loving eye. This is simply a must read.’ — Fiona Kidman