Cardboard Boy by Michèle Laframboise

Theo, a dispirited workplace humanitarian, audits a child worker at a cardboard factory, in a port city somewhere in Asia. He is impressed by young Malak’s maturity and grit. When that boy, the same age as Theo’s own son, disappears, he cannot let it rest. His quest for answers only raises more questions about the traps of structured help and acquired privilege. An unsettling 11000-word story quietly told by multiple awards-winning author Michèle Laframboise.