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.

Winner of the Ches Crosbie Barrister Newfoundland Book Award for Fiction

Gerard Collins’ first book, the short story collection Moonlight Sketches won the 2012 NL Book Award and his first novel, Finton Moon, has already won the Percy Janes First Novel Award. He’s won several arts and letters awards, been shortlisted for the Cuffer Prize, published in Hard Ol’ Spot, Zeugma and various other anthologies. He has been a guest speaker at numerous literary festivals and taught workshops in writing for youth. He has a Ph.D. in English and teaches at Memorial University.

Gerard Collins' profile page

• Winner, The Ches Crosbie Barrister Newfoundland Book Award for Fiction

It is tempting to say Moonlight Sketches is for anyone who enjoys NL 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 of background. Anne Barnes, The Independent.ca