We Have Never Lived On Earth

The short stories in We Have Never Lived on Earth follow a young immigrant woman named Charlotte as she makes her way from a childhood in South Africa, to an adolescence in the interior of British Columbia, to her various travels as an adult. Each story has a sense of melancholy, as though Charlotte is mourning the loss of someone or something that used to be in her life. The stories speak to common themes about growing up: the feeling of being 16 with the whole summer stretched out before you, your first job, first love, and going back to your hometown as an adult to find that everything has changed. This collection could be read as a whole or certain stories could be extracted to be read separately. As a possible reflective assignment, learners could write about a period from their lives, analyzing what feelings or images they strongly associate with it.