Empty - M.A. Ross

Meet Bobby: Born ‘n bred Lewis girl. Millennial. Teuchtar. And self-confessed ‘cheery depressive’.

She’s sorted…sort of. With her own place, a steady income, and a tiny pool of trusted friends, she leads a blissfully uneventful life. At almost 40 and working as a petrol station attendant in Stornoway, she’s hardly broadened her horizons since leaving her home in a village just ten miles away.

She gets more pleasure from her favoured Marian Keyes books than she does from reality. She daydreams sometimes of a fuller life… however, she fears that any deviation from her strict routine and rituals could potentially derail her delicate mental health, and that is simply a risk she is not willing to take. Not after last time. Or the time before that. She’s had too many close calls.

What will become of her though, when despite her care and diligence, life throws curveballs she simply can’t avoid? Will Bobby find the strength to overcome heartbreak? Is there a tiny possibility that she could prove herself wrong and even perhaps rise and thrive from the ashes of despair? Or is she destined to forever remain empty?