These seventeen short stories, mostly set in New Zealand, have a wry, sharp, frequently amusing edge. Themes of Death and Loss appear in them, but fragmented into brief, vivid moments which fuse starkly, as in a mosaic, the bizarre and the conventional, the droll and the mundane. Seemingly normal people are revealed as outsiders or misfits, into whose lives an unexpected event brings disturbance, shock and recognition. Often the meaning of the cataclysm, whether small or large, is revealed in a moment of personal, even secret, anguish. 

About the author

Marcus Campbell was born in New Zealand in 1951.  He studied English literature and drama (BA, Wellington), set-design (MA, California) and directing (MFA Canada), then pursued a career in theatre as a designer, director, actor and writer.  His plays have been performed in Auckland, Seattle, Juneau (Alaska) and Greenwich Village (New York) and selected for the NZ National Playwrights’ Workshop (1983).  He was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship (1977) , the Frank Sargeson Award for short story writing (1981, see: OUP New Zealand short stories, 1983, reprinted as Cabernet Sauvignon with My Brother) and has been semi-finalist in the Katharine Mansfield short story competition.  His first novel, A Blue Forest, is also on WritersReadersDirect.