First published 2015
Twelve stories span centuries and continents, following characters displaced by time, circumstance, or their own choices. A woman trapped in routine dreams of alternate lives as a Welsh lighthouse keeper or Arctic polar bear guard. A sixteenth-century alchemist discovers his own capacity for the same dissatisfaction he has ignored in his patients. Characters grapple with isolation and estrangement while navigating both supernatural encounters and everyday neglect. Some find redemption through acts of penance. Others remain suspended between worlds they cannot fully inhabit. The collection culminates with a sailor's firsthand testimony of the Great Auk's extinction. His account mixes violence with dark humor as he chronicles the final moments of a species. These stories examine how people respond when caught between what they have lost and what they cannot reach.
Genres: short-stories, nature, literary-fiction, historical-fiction
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Wales, Arctic
Period: 16th-century, 21st-century
192 pages · Paperback · JM Originals
Content warnings: death, violence