Description
‘We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.’
The separating seas in these fourteen beautiful and thought-provoking stories are variously wide, wild and deadly. They segregate islands that are both physical and metaphorical, and isolate the disparate characters that inhabit them. And yet, beneath the surface of each uniquely individual tale lies a connecting undercurrent of shared human experience.
Among others: a student in Dublin hoping for love while finding himself isolated by language; a WW1 officer losing his sight on a quarantine island; an executioner who is reviled by everyone, including herself; a woman separated from her husband during Covid 19 lockdown; and a recent arrival who fights for survival during one of New Zealand’s great maritime tragedies. And throughout, historical figures and their ghosts stalk the pages.
Islands Ever After is a collection of short stories, spanning the 18th century to the modern day. Primarily set on isles across Ireland, Scotland and New Zealand, they explore the experiences of outsiders, immigrants, eccentrics and outcasts in search of connection, understanding and, above all, belonging.
Majella Cullinane writes essays, fiction and poetry. Originally from Ireland, she has lived in Aotearoa New Zealand since 2008 and Ōtepoti Dunedin since 2014. She has published three poetry collections with Salmon Poetry Ireland and Otago University Press. Her debut novel, The Life of De’Ath, Steele Roberts (2018) was shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize, a finalist in the 2018 NZ Heritage Book Award, and longlisted for the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Fiction Prize 2. Her short stories have won, been shortlisted or highly commended in national and international competitions, and published in Greece, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, and the US. She has been awarded residencies and fellowships in Ireland, New Zealand and Scotland. In 2020 she graduated with a PhD in Creative Practice from the University of Otago. She lives with her family in Kōpūtai, Port Chalmers.
