Brilliant stories about the emotional realms of childhoodEven happy days come to an end. In this remarkable collection, Cressida Connolly explores the lives of children and young people who, in the wake of events that alter everything, find themselves changed forever. A conversation on a trip to the zoo heralds the end of a family; a boy watches his father fold Aunt Rose into his arms and loses his vocation; a young girl grows jealous of the attention paid to her dying sister. Each of these perfectly crafted stories examines familiar emotions—love, loss, jealousy, loneliness—with a fresh eye. The Happiest Days is an exciting, original, startling debut.