C1 Reading

After her father’s death, Nora returns to his neglected allotment. Clearing the plot and reading his gardening notebook offer a quieter way to face what she has postponed.

Nadia arrives to report on a festival centred on a bell that has never rung. Old records challenge the town’s familiar account of its past, raising an uncomfortable question about truth.

Lost-property worker Nadia opens an unclaimed notebook filled with detailed drawings. Many of its buildings have vanished, sending her in search of both the artist and the city they remembered.

Meera finds a rooftop garden and an unexpected community in her new building. A threat to the garden brings her work as a lawyer into conflict with her neighbours’ hopes.

A fictional biography of Inês Barroca, a Portuguese cartographer who records villages before reservoirs swallow them. Her maps preserve names, homes and memories that official surveys overlook.