Philippa Holloway

The debut short story collection from the Ondaatje-award longlisted author of The Half-life of Snails. Dead birds fall from the sky, an octopus lies stranded on a beach, and a lost shoe becomes a public shrine ... Untethered, Philippa Holloway's first collection of short stories, provides an unflinching glimpse of daily life interrupted by unexpected events. Small intrusions into familiar spaces reveal nothing is as it seems, and to feel suddenly adrift, unsure, might just be the catalyst needed for clarity. Sometimes it demands a change of viewpoint, sometimes a cutting loose to find freedom. From conflicted parental expectations to unwanted visitors, from discovering tiny human teeth in the garden to a brief encounter with a murderer over the kitchen table, these precise, realist tales scrutinise families and lovers, colleagues and strangers with a keen emotional depth and sharp observation. Each one is a vivid snapshot of how people anchor themselves inside their lives and beliefs, exposing the fragile ties that hold people together, and highlighting the need to see things differently to survive the day.

Energy Crisis explores a personal health crisis within an examination of the energy production issues affecting North Wales and Anglesey. It is set over the space of a single summer, and framed by an attempt to try rock climbing. Within this structure, Philippa Holloway deftly address Solar Power, Wind Power, Tidal Power, Nuclear Power, and Fossil Fuels by weaving them into a deeply personal narrative of her own diagnosis with an illness that depletes her energy.

Two sisters, two nuclear power stations, one child caught in the middle... When Helen, a self-taught prepper and single mother, leaves her young son Jack with her sister for a few days so she can visit Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone, they both know the situation will be tense. Helen opposes plans for a new power station on the coast of Ynys Mon that will take over the family's farmland, and Jennifer works for the nuclear industry and welcomes the plans for the good of the economy. But blood is thicker than heavy water, and both want to reconnect somehow, with Jack perhaps the key to a new understanding of one another. Yet while Helen's is forced to face up to childhood traumas, and her worst fears regarding nuclear disaster, during a trip that sees her caught up in political violence and trapped in Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone during the 2014 Euromaidan revolution,, Jennifer too must discover that even the smallest decision can have catastrophic and long-lasting effects, both within the nuclear industry, and within the home. And Jack isn't like other five-year olds...as they will both discover with devastating consequences.

Two sisters, two nuclear power stations, one child caught in the middle... When Helen, a self-taught prepper and single mother, leaves her young son Jack with her sister for a few days so she can visit Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone, they both know the situation will be tense. Helen opposes plans for a new power station on the coast of Anglesey that will take over the family's farmland, and Jennifer works for the nuclear industry and welcomes the plans for the good of the economy. But blood is thicker than heavy water, and both want to reconnect somehow, with Jack perhaps the key to a new understanding of one another. Yet while Helen's is forced to face up to childhood traumas, and her worst fears regarding nuclear disaster, during a trip that sees her caught up in political violence and trapped in Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone, Jennifer too must discover that even the smallest decision can have catastrophic and long- lasting effects, both within the nuclear industry, and within the home. And Jack isn't like other five-year olds... as they will both discover with devastating consequences.