Reward System by Jem Calder

Julia has landed a fresh start – at a ‘pan-European’ restaurant.
‘Imagine that,’ says her mother.
‘I’m imagining.’

Nick is flirting with sobriety and nobody else. Did you know: adults his age are now more likely to live with their parents than a romantic partner?

Life should have started to take shape by now – but instead we’re trying on new versions of ourselves, swiping left and right, searching for a convincing answer to that question: ‘What do you do?’

Reward System is a set of ultra-contemporary and electrifyingly fresh fictions about a generation of the cusp; the story of two people enmeshed in Zooms and lockdowns, loneliness and love.

(Faber)