“Books & Roses” is the story of Montserrat, a foundling left in a Catalonian chapel at the feet of the Virgin de Montserrat. Her only possessions are a key hanging on a golden chain around her neck, and a note. Cared for by the monks of the order, she grows up and finds work in a laundry, where she encounters Señora Lucy, a painter who also wears a key. Montse eventually discovers that she and Lucy are linked, when she finds the lock that fits her key. Her reaction is bittersweet: "She'd carried the key to this place for so long and now that she was there she didn't know where she was."

"Books & Roses" is from Oyeyemi's short story collection, What Is Not Yours is Not Yours (described as "flawless" by NPR).