Living As a Moon

Shortlisted for the NZ Post Book Awards, these 25 stories are at once arresting, moving, funny and full of insight into the human condition.

Being a celebrity impersonator, says Aussie Elton John, is like living your life as a moon. 'We give up our identity and become just a reflection of another personality, like the moon having no fire of its own and being just a pale reflection of the sun when it's not there.'

This collection of stories from master short fiction writer Owen Marshall is rich with people exploring their identities and how they are affected by others. There is Patrick, whose life is radically altered by a random encounter with a killer; widowed Margaret, who faces a new kind of existence alone; David, who experiences the 'spontaneous and passing friendship of strangers'; Ian, whose wife's demands for a better lifestyle lead him to a new career in telephone sex. Set in both Europe and the Antipodes, these stories will be savoured long after reading.