Nothing but the Now: Seven Short Stories by Zhen Wen

Nothing but the Now is a collection of seven stories, most of them about chance encounters in the world, the consequences of greed and temptation, the inescapable past, and moral dilemmas that seem to be tailored to each character's flaws and foibles. The book explores the larger and more fundamental issues of life, death, love, and desire, and further interrogates the inter-relationships between the individual, the other, and the world. Each character in the stories must struggle to understand the meaning of his or her encounters and translate them into gains in their lives if they are to truly grow and arrive at themselves.