Borrowed for a Short Time
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Parthian Books
Published:16th Jul '26
Should be back in stock very soon

The latest story collection from the winner of the Journey Prize.
A young man suffers a workplace accident in a bankrupt industrial unit at Christmas time; a couple set out in the midst of a snowstorm to
save a wounded owl; a motley crew of local volunteers comes together to search the river for a missing child.Borrowed for a Short Time is a collection of linked stories which blend fiction and creative non-fiction. Based on Keevil's experiences of moving to mid Wales in his twenties, striving - sometimes failing - to fit into a new culture, the different narratives explore themes of isolation and belonging, love and longing, and what it means to call a place home.
Ranging from rural Wales to urban Vancouver, and featuring recurring characters whose lives and fates intertwine, this collection resonates with wisdom, warmth, and a rare, deceptively simple, honesty.
'This is a beautifully written, keenly observed, and moving collection of stories, blending fiction and creative non-fiction to explore the author's experience of moving from Canada to settle in Wales. Each story is a finely crafted whole, but cumulatively, in the carefully interlinked structure of the collection, they offer a wonderfully poised, searching and eloquent portrait of a writer navigating the delicate negotiations of love, family, place and belonging.' - Tristan Hughes
'Tyler Keevil knows where a story starts and when it needs to finish. In this powerfully tough and tender collection, outsiders, incomers, actors and owls all play their parts in laying bare life's hard edges and the realities of today's hiraeth. Deeply realized, plainspoken and poetic.' – Katie Munnik
'A series of beautifully intimate, interconnected short stories in which characters rehearse and perform their dreams and realities through a two-act play structure – Borrowed for a Short Time is a heart-wrenching, gut-punching collection which juxtaposes the Welsh and Canadian landscapes and other places in between, exploring love, loss, identity and belonging. Through the rendering of the ordinary and extraordinary in varying shades of dark and light in a deeply personal, lyrical voice, Keevil’s collection is a whispered incantation. Pure magic.' – Elaine Canning
ISBN: 9781913830601
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
200 pages