The Scattering

Borders haunt this debut fiction collection from prizewinning writer Jaki McCarrick: the Irish border where she lives, the boundaries of the natural world, and the darker edge of human nature, even the supernatural, here with an 'Ulster Gothic' twist. From small-town Louth and Monaghan to London, Florida and New Orleans, and back in time to the dawn of humanity, these stories explore the spaces between certainty and doubt, dependency and freedom. We witness the psychological fall-out from catastrophe and constraint, the pain of dual and fractured identities, the experience of emigration. Above all, what it means to be alive in a fraught and ever-changing world. Jaki McCarrick is a playwright, poet and short-story writer living in Dundalk. She studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and Middlesex University, gaining distinction and first-class honours. She has won many awards for her work and her plays have been performed (and read) in London, Belfast, Galway, Philadelphia and New York.