You can purchase Moonlight Sketches at Chapters Indigo, Breakwater Books, and Amazon (Canada, United States, and the United Kingdom and Ireland).
Welcome to Darwin, Newfoundland, a small town with big secrets.
On the surface, nothing ever changes and everyone is content. But the truth is as restless, cold, and mutable as the ocean in these sixteen linked short stories. In Darwin, people’s secrets are hidden and their fears are buried. But night after night, the moon bears quiet witness to their brightest moments and darkest days.
A Catholic girl finds herself pregnant and feels hopelessly trapped. An elderly couple fears the end of their happy, quiet life when their money sock goes missing. Two lesbians walk into the wrong bar on a Saturday night. A young teacher must rescue a student from her wicked father. A wild youth seeks to rectify his life, but first takes his bookish friend on one last heist.
In Moonlight Sketches, Gerard Collins portrays a land of shadows, beyond the overpass, where cruelty and hope gnaw at your peace of mind as the brine patiently devours a wharf. With his trademark dark humour and a nod to the unknown, the author shines a light on the difficulty of being human and yet somehow surviving with grace, dignity, and a modicum of happiness.
It is tempting to say Moonlight Sketches is for anyone who enjoys Newfoundland and Labrador literature, but it is for anyone who enjoys good books, period. The town of Darwin and its inhabitants are as unique to our province, but their stories and voices are filled with a familiar universality that will appeal to serious readers everywhere regardless of their location or background.
~ Anne Barnes, The Independent.ca