Calls May Be Recorded: A Novel

Summary

Jimmie works in a London call center, fielding complaints from dissatisfied travelers. Concerns range from whether compulsive itching will attract sharks in Mykonos, to the queue at the infinity pools in Maldives, to stray hairs on pillows: "the utterings of people at odds with their own hedonism, holidays made unenjoyable by their own expectations."

Today is different, Jimmie's co-worker Elin warns him. Jimmie is on the chopping block, and his boss, Simon, has followed him into the bathroom during an unauthorized break to request an "urgent" meeting. Also, his partner in an illicit bathroom tryst the week before has been promoted from wearing one of the color-coded staff hoodies, to the position of a hoodie-free assistant manager. The mystery caller could ring at any moment, and Jimmie's cube-neighbor, Wolf, suspects he’s acting even stranger than usual. It could be because he's wearing his mother's cheap red lipstick, staring longingly out the sole window in the communal kitchen.

With remarkable dexterity and an acerbic wit, Katharina Volckmer skewers the corporate workplace and watercooler relationships, culminating in an insightful and powerfully moving portrait of loneliness and human connection.