Epoque Press – förlag

As we climb the wooden hill to bed each night we trace our life’s journey from birth, then each step toward death, the final sleep.This collection of short stories, by Jamie Guiney, explores what it is to be human at every stage of life, from the imminence of a new birth in ‘We Knew You Before You Were Born’, through to adolescence and the camaraderie of youthful friendships as portrayed in ‘Sam Watson & The Penny World Cup’.Ultimately, all of our lives stride towards old age and the certainty of death, as poignantly evoked in the title story, ‘The Wooden Hill’.

Sam, a 45-year-old Londoner of dual heritage, has lived his life accompanied by voices no one else can hear. Chief among them is the taunting echo of a childhood bully who refuses to let Sam forget the guilt he carries over his mother’s death.When his elusive, dream-like girlfriend, known only as Boat Woman, disappears without warning, Sam’s fragile world begins to unravel, and he becomes convinced that only his death can protect those he loves.As the past and present collide in Sam’s fractured mind, he is drawn into a labyrinth of memory and revelation that challenges everything he thought he knew. But the voices that haunt him may yet become his guides, if he can only find the courage to listen.Luminous, unsettling and tender, Where the Shadows End is a powerful meditation on self-acceptance, the nature of guilt and the need to belong.

Welcome to the village of Spit, where Danny Mulcahy is losing the run of himself, and where, as he and his friends dream of escaping, an unexpected death sets the rumour mill into motion.Suffering an unexplained, perpetual banishment the Spook of Spit is watching everyone and everything - nothing goes unnoticed. Bearing witness to the village's half-truths and suppressed secrets, fragments of its own dark and obscured history are unveiled.As events spiral out of control, the past, present and future are set to collide. Can there be redemption for past deeds? How do you escape when you are fated to remain? What does it take to break free from the confines of Spit?

This sprawling saga of family and class is told by an enigmatic narrator, a hoarder of documents, who is trying to lay out a history of the Nacullian family.As the jumble of their lives is pieced together we witness them migrate, marry, work up library fines, die, build bridges and Morris dance.Brick Dust is a comedic tale about the struggle to make something solid, when all we have is dust.

As spring evenings lengthen over Kilnavarn House, two sisters, looking after their infirm mother, navigate the fragile territory between past and present.Memories of a troubled upbringing resurface and the house holds onto the women, as it always has, refusing to let them go until long suppressed truths are spoken.Sweep the Cobwebs Off the Sky is a tender exploration of ageing, memory, place, and the desire for reconciliation.

Following the introduction of the Lionheart Laws, which have unleashed a wave of racialised violence, four outsiders must come to terms with what it means to be foreign in a homeland which now rejects them.Ousted academic Ashley, washed-up politician Clarissa, exiled psychotherapist Alix, and disgraced boxer Steven, must walk a tightrope between attempted conformity and hostile discrimination, whilst dealing with the worsening symptoms of Xanthosis, a strange virus of the psyche that has afflicted them for as long as they can remember.XANTHOSIS is a mind-bending web of interconnected narratives about the spectre of neo-fascism haunting Britain.

If the River is Hidden charts the journey of two writers from the source to the mouth of the Bann, Northern Ireland’s longest river. Through a dialogue of prose and poetry the history, landscape and divisions that have come to define the North are explored and challenged. With backgrounds from each side of the sectarian divide, theirs is a journey of uncovering a sense of place and of searching for meaning; a reshaping of the authors' own memories, experiences and expectations. For like the river, it is not just what is visible, but what is hidden, that comes to define us.

Imprisoned by the apartheid regime in South Africa, Verity Saunders endures the daily degradation of her incarceration whilst coming to terms with the disappearance of her activist lover, Tariq Randeree.Thirty years later, Verity sets out to uncover the truth about her past and to confront those who brutalised and betrayed her. As secrets are exposed she learns that in order to truly heal she must embrace the path of forgiveness.Meadowlands Dawn is inspired by the author's own experience as a political prisoner in apartheid South Africa during the 1980s. It explores the desires and indignities of the human heart and deals with the impact of radicalisation and its aftermath.

If you could save the life of a loved one by trading in years of your own life, how many years would you give? How many lives could you save? Would you know when to stop?Francis Broad has done just that and has negotiated the day of his death, now he must come to terms with the decisions he has made.Three Gifts explores one man’s attempt to live a good life, his sense of responsibility, gratitude and what it means to love.

Are we more like a coffee bean, a carrot or an egg? What happens to us when we are boiled in the trials and tribulations of life?Jessica Miller is fascinated by the somewhat perplexing tendency of humans to end their own lives, but she secretly believes such acts may not be that bad after all. Or at least, she did.Jessica is coming to terms with her own relationships, and reflecting on what it means to be queer, when a single event throws everything she once believed into doubt. Can she still defend the act?

Robert Bunny, a toy bunny rabbit, observes the steady decline of a family he so desperately wants to be a part of.His is the only voice of reasonas he connects the crumbling mind of Deborah to her son Alex, whilst she tries to save him from the very worst of himself.The Shape of Guilt charts a pattern of secrecy and trauma, one which culminates in a brutal and drastic action. Will Robert Bunny be able to save the ones he loves?

Returning from Brazil with his wife and daughter, Oisín is looking to rebuild a life in Ireland and reconnect with his mother, Brigid, who has early onset Alzheimer’s. As her condition deteriorates she starts to speak Irish, the language of her youth, and reflect on her childhood dreams and aspirations.Mother and son embark on a journey of personal discovery, and as past traumas are exposed they begin to understand what has shaped them and who they really are.The Language of Remembering asks how we connect to the people we love and how we move on from the past to find meaning in the present.

A young girl, anonymous and ignored, sits through a cold, hard, west-country winter, begging for change and searching for a warm place to sleep. Ghosts of Spring explores one girl’s desire to transcend the limits of her environment and forge a new life against all the odds.

A young man, dealing with his father’s terminal cancer, retreats into introspection on relationships both old and new as a past mired with failure comes back to haunt him, consuming his present and threatening to derail his future.Exploring themes of loss and repentance, The Passing Of The Forms That We Have Loved questions whether formative acts of indecisiveness can have far reaching repercussions in later years.

Winner of The Barbellion Prize 2021Sharing stories of myths, legends and ancient bogs, a deaf child and her grandmother experiment with the lyrical beauty of sign language.Learning to communicate through their shared love of trees they find solace in the shapes and susurrations of leaves in the wind. A poignant tale of family bonding and the quiet acceptance of change.

El Hacho is a timeless evocation of inheritance, duty and our relationship to the landscape that defines us. Set in the stark beauty of the Andalucían mountains it tells the story of Curro, an olive farmer determined to honour his family tradition in the face of drought, deluge and the lucrative temptations of a rapidly modernising Spain. Wonderfully crafted, El Hacho is a poignant and compelling story of struggle and hope.

The Groundsmen delves into the fractured lives of a family blemished by a darkly disturbing past. The secrets kept hidden over multiple generations taint them all and as events spiral out of control in a cycle of violence, none of them will escape. The narrative is told from the perspective of five individual family members:Louis is trapped under the dark shadow of his past with Toby.Cally retreats to a world of myth and seeks a salvation that eludes her.Andi is caught in a degenerate relationship of dependency and control.Cassie is turning into a dog and burying the wreckage of all their lives in the garden.Over them all looms the dark presence of the Groundsman’s hut.

Upperdown, David Brennan's debut novel, is a dark reimagining of 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin'.Things in the town of Upperdown are not as they seem. The Professor struggles with his devotion to proving the Riemann Hypothesis and he walks the streets seeking a solution whilst battling his own deeper preoccupations.The appearance of a stranger in town, the Piano Man, leads to the resolution of the rat infestation but when the town's children start to go missing it is clear something darker has been set in motion.

Welcome to the world of The Nacullians, three generations of one family, living in a brick house in a line of other brick houses.Craig Jordan-Baker's dark comedy charts the tensions and traumas of one family and their relationship with the city they inhabit.

Íosac Mulgannon is a man called to stand. Losing a grip on his mental and physical health, he is burdened with looking after a mute child whom the local villagers view as cursed.The aging farmer stubbornly refuses to succumb in the face of adversity and will do anything, at any cost, to keep hold of his farm and the child.This dark and lyrical debut novel confronts a claustrophobic rural community caught up in the uncertainties of a rapidly changing world.