Micro review: 'Unmasked' by Paro Anand

Author Paro Anand's latest book titled 'Unmasked: Stories from the Pandemic' is about courage, despair, and hope in the pandemic. Through 18 short stories, Anand introduces us to characters who seem familiar and intimate. These are stories of migrants, domestic abuse, work and study from home.
Inspired from reality with an emphasis on fiction, the book begins with a poem written by a 13-year-old girl that deeply moved Anand.Interestingly, and in the end, Chapter 19 is left blank so readers can fill it with their own pandemic experiences and share them with family and friends.
"The year 2020 will forever be reported as the time when we all fell down. But it was also the year we all got back up and were forced to come together in a way we had never imagined before," reads the book's blurb.
"From a mother and son looking to make ends meet as the lockdown brutally affects their lives to a housewife who's a victim of domestic abuse, from young keyboard wizards keen on making a difference to a home delivery executive who becomes an unlikely hero, this book unmasks the layers of the year that changed us all," it adds.