Citizens

Dublin 2011: Ireland has failed, and if you're in your twenties, you're getting out. Neil, twenty-six, unemployed and disillusioned with the country, is leaving. But having deferred his flight to attend his grandfather's funeral, he's now stuck behind, aiding his grieving grandmother. His girlfriend left for Canada a month ago. Once he gets what has been bequeathed to him, he'll join her. Dublin 1916: Harry Casey is a Pathé newsreel cameraman with a cine-machine and four reels ready to capture the events of Easter Week. However, war destroys even the best-laid plans, and what starts out as an artistic endeavour becomes a subversive challenge to the new republic's hierarchy. Before Neil can leave for Canada, his grandmother asks him to read his great-grandfather Harry Casey's recently discovered memoirs. Eager to find out if the reminiscences are valuable, Neil delays his departure again. With his girlfriend in Canada growing increasingly impatient, and his grandmother's pleas for him to stay in Ireland more desperate, Neil faces a choice between the past and the future that will have far-reaching consequences for the rest of his life. Citizens creates a conversation across a century, between two disparate characters, in one unique interwoven story that combines the historical epic with razor-sharp contemporary cultural commentary. Twelve authors, twelve tales of love and travel – some sweet and touching, some bleak and disturbing. This collection includes stories by writers from Australia, Ireland, Kenya, Malawi, New Zealand, the UK, the USA and Zimbabwe. The authors have won or been nominated for prizes and awards including the Caine Prize for African Writing, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Pushcart Prize and Kenya's National Book Week Literary Award. They offer the reader a meet-cute on the streets of Zimbabwe, a classic American roadtrip replayed with an elderly Jewish patient and his black orderly and an encounter between a withdrawn war veteran and his beautiful neighbour in Iran. They follow a couple from Malawi who endure an odyssey in search of a better future in Europe, a woman in New Zealand who has to make a choice when her husband decides to become a woman and others. These stories are about the power of love to heal us, give us courage and make us want to be better people. They are also about its power to harm us, deluding us into submitting to control, deception and abuse. Anthology of 12 short stories about love and travel, each by a different author