The Islander

Winner: Literary Fiction, National Association of Independent Writers and Editors

Seamus Damp is an aging American-born writer who retreats to a remote island off the coast of Ireland to escape to a monastic life. But his troubled past is always near, and his estranged relationship with his son is fraught with heartbreak. When a young woman who carries her own heartache-filled past comes to the island on a solitary spiritual and hiking adventure, she and Seamus discover an unusual bond and together attempt to find a way to heal their hearts and erase their collective sorrows.

During a harrowing coastal storm, the young woman seeks refuge at Seamus' door. A night of conversation while the wild weather rages begins their journey toward a mutual understanding of their personal stories of betrayal, death, and emotional hopelessness. Eventually, the young woman helps Seamus through health emergencies, and emergencies of the heart -- old and new -- as she, too, attempts to discover her own way toward an emotional breakthrough on a beautiful yet rugged, wind-swept island where solitude is its greatest gift.

The Islander is part of The Shortish Project, celebrating short novels at theshortishproject.com.