Young Adela discovers that the pangs of love are a lot more complicated than she has imagined, and that there may not be such a thing as the perfect love after all. At her mother’s death bed, May tries to make sense of the dying woman’s role in her life and the strange nature of their mother-daughter relationship. As a new undergraduate learning the ropes of adulthood, Djuna meets and learns from her role-model, only to find that in life, nothing is entirely what it seems. Meanwhile, a teenager stressed out by school exams has suicidal thoughts and is forced to examine the meaning of her life. And a woman in her early prime is confronted with the unexpected death of her father… ** In this collection of stories about five different lives, Desi Anwar explores the pains of growing up, the fragility of human emotions and the challenges of learning to navigate the complexities of life while trying to understand the meaning behind it all. In Growing Pains each character discovers in her own way, that in order to make sense of the world and face a confusing reality, she must first embrace her inner turmoils, come to terms with her own vulnerability, and allow the mysterious workings of the Universe to unveil itself.