Intra-city work commutes, European train rides, the visiting of familiar places and the relocation to new ones, expressions of concern for teeth, old men drinking Capri-Sun, young women drinking beer and wine, the eating of digestive biscuits and honey, the chopping of fresh pears for inclusion within dessert, the following of uncertain impulses and the living of an often online life. Amongst all this, and much more besides, Alan Cunningham (Count from Zero to One Hundred) has crafted a restless tale about the tenderness and grace that can be found in failing the idea of one's self. Echoing work by Georges Perec and Clarice Lispector, Sovereign Invalid is an often jarring novella that explores what occurs when we abandon a desire for constant strength and instead embrace, however delicately, the troubling limits of our bodies.