Books in the Fairlight Moderns series

Longlisted for The Women's Prize for Fiction 2019 and The Republic of Consciousness Prize 2019. 1970s communist Romania. When Alina's brother-in-law defects to the West, her and her husband's careers come grinding to a halt. Alina turns to her aunt for help - the wife of a communist leader and a secret practitioner of the old folk ways.

On an East Coast island, Delilah moves into a cottage. The neighbours gossip as they watch her plant a colourful garden out front. Very unusual, they whisper. Across the driveway lives a man who never goes out. Delilah knows he's watching her too and she likes the look of him, but perhaps life is too complicated already...

In the aftermath of a devastating earthquake, Sarah travels back to her home town with her young son and is forced to face what she fled from years ago. Set in the wild, beautiful and unreliable landscape of southern New Zealand, Emma Timpany's novella is an evocative story of a woman coming to terms with her past and forging a brighter future.

Nicholas Anderton is a highly respected neurosurgeon at the top of his field. But behind the successful facade all is not well. Tormented by a toxic marriage and haunted by past mistakes, Anderton has been eating to forget. But when mistakes are made and his old adversary Nash steps in to take advantage, Anderton knows things are coming to a head.

In this hauntingly surreal tale, a couple finds the distance between them mirrored in a strange epidemic sweeping the globe. Little by little, each victim becomes transparent, their heart beating behind a visible rib cage, an intricate network of nerves left hanging in mid-air. Finally, the victims disappear entirely, never to be seen again.

It's 1970s Canada. The small island community of Bear Lake is awash with rumours of layoffs and wildcat strikes at the mill. But for young Tom, nothing is more important than hanging out with his best friend, Cormic, except perhaps catching a glimpse of Sasha Dovonovitch, the foreman's daughter.

Milton Pitt leads an uneventful life, with a dull job and a secret longing for adventure. One morning, after he is hit by a speeding car, he suffers an out-of-body experience and awakens back in his bedroom. Everything is just the same - that is, except for the bloody footprints leading to the chimney...

In snapshots through time, 'Only About Love' takes a sweeping loop around Frank's life as he navigates courtship, marriage, fatherhood and illness. Told through the perspective of Frank and his family, this story is one of intense honesty about the things we do to those closest to us.