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Tunnel Island: Stories
Set on an island in BC's Salish Sea, a richly imagined and often hilarious collection of linked stories by Bill Gaston, a master of the art of short fiction.
Eleven stories feature a cast of characters striving to overcome pasts that often include a catastrophic error. On Tunnel Island, moral misjudgments, semi-legal schemes, and antisocial gaffes abound as characters seek a remedy for what ails loneliness, heartbreak, grief.
Jack ekes out a living doing odd jobs and minding the estates of absent owners, until he takes a lover's bad advice and rents their houses through Airbnb. A dying woman retains her wry Wiccan sense of humour while lovingly ministered to by her partner — in between his trips to hand out Halloween candy at their door. The almost mystical disappearance of a toddler is revisited years later when her parents remarry in a surreal outdoor ceremony.
Highly original and empathetic, Tunnel Island is electrified by dark undercurrents that jolt and illuminate by turns. Bill Gaston's bighearted vision of life on a heavily forested island immerses readers in a world rendered tender and tolerable by human folly and our stumbling attempts at redemption.
Eleven stories feature a cast of characters striving to overcome pasts that often include a catastrophic error. On Tunnel Island, moral misjudgments, semi-legal schemes, and antisocial gaffes abound as characters seek a remedy for what ails loneliness, heartbreak, grief.
Jack ekes out a living doing odd jobs and minding the estates of absent owners, until he takes a lover's bad advice and rents their houses through Airbnb. A dying woman retains her wry Wiccan sense of humour while lovingly ministered to by her partner — in between his trips to hand out Halloween candy at their door. The almost mystical disappearance of a toddler is revisited years later when her parents remarry in a surreal outdoor ceremony.
Highly original and empathetic, Tunnel Island is electrified by dark undercurrents that jolt and illuminate by turns. Bill Gaston's bighearted vision of life on a heavily forested island immerses readers in a world rendered tender and tolerable by human folly and our stumbling attempts at redemption.
228 pages, Paperback
Published April 29, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 20, 2025
gorgeous. brought me to tears multiple times. bill gaston is truly a legend
October 14, 2025
I like short stories, and this is a book of short stories.
That said, it's difficult to recommend this book. There are 1 or 2 good stories, imho, but for the most part they are just odd, "sad sack" stories, with no discernible sparkle or beauty.
Perhaps you have to be one of the fortunate few living on one of the islands in the BC Salish Sea to "get" these. But since I am not....
That said, it's difficult to recommend this book. There are 1 or 2 good stories, imho, but for the most part they are just odd, "sad sack" stories, with no discernible sparkle or beauty.
Perhaps you have to be one of the fortunate few living on one of the islands in the BC Salish Sea to "get" these. But since I am not....
July 24, 2025
Some of the stories really hit, but mostly underwhelming. Another case of feeling over-hyped by the reviews
September 10, 2025
A collection of short stories set locally on an island in the salish sea exploring the complexities of life and decisions.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews