Only One Life

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A collection of short fiction by multiple award winning author, Dorothy Simmons. This collection contains twenty one new stories that deal with various themes centring on human relationships, love and casual cruelties. In The Situation, Simmons takes us to Northern Ireland and explores sectarianism in a tightly woven story about a father and daughter.

The stories in Only One Life are from a female perspective. Central to each is the assertion of individual agency: the ability to take charge of your life, to make your own myth. Some narratives envisage historical events, others re-imagine contemporary issues. Sixteenth century queens bury their differences while a refugee on Nauru paints the stars; a librarian re-enacts ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ and a widow looks through a telescope at Jupiter rising. In each case, the question arises: whose life is this?

To have agency is to have voice; these voices echo in my head… I hope they will in yours.