On a cold day in April, Adib, an immigrant in Germany, wonders where life has fledWhere the Wood Anemones Grow by Merle Emrich (@merlu.em) Issue: November 2025 On a cold day in April, Adib, an immigrant in Germany, wonders where life has fled and follows a trail of absence into the forest on the edge of town.

The mycelium in the world’s soil was withering. And now his research was this: registering all the decay, chronicling the death of entire ecological civilizations.

“Very rarely can the author of a story insert himself in one, for they can neither be participants nor observers; their roles are predefined and predestined as with all works of fiction.”

Is the universe coming full circle Finding itself, reflecting itself