Tomorrow There Will Be Sun (A Hope Prize Anthology, S&S)

Armed with a mandate to celebrate hope, courage and resilience, the 20 stories in the anthology Tomorrow There Will Be Sun venture near and far, from the sheep-herding plains of Nigeria to the conservative heartland of Ireland and the sun-dappled gardens of Australia. Each story, either a prize-winner or shortlisted in the prestigious 2024 Hope Prize, is centred on individuals in the throes of crises who eventually find their way back to themselves and the people closest to them. Particularly affecting are Carol Byrne’s third-place-winning story, ‘Black Hole’, in which an older Irish woman, grieving the unwanted surrender of her newborn decades prior, is closer than she thinks to finding him; and Rebecca Higgie’s shortlisted story, ‘Tinged with Gold’, in which a father mourning the loss of his wife hoards the last few bottles of breastmilk that she had expressed for their infant son. In the shortlisted ‘WWRGD?’, Eleanor Kirk expertly inhabits the interiority of a man newly out of prison as he struggles to adapt to regular life. The rare pieces of memoir interspersed among the short fiction are about the dislocation of migration and the legacies of loved ones no longer with us. The anthology, with a foreword by Dame Quentin Bryce, is cohesive and affirming, filled with moments of good luck and kindness. In each story, the indomitability of human connection proves to be a salve against the systemic issues of our time, whether it’s substance abuse, mental illness, war, poverty or loneliness.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Sonia Nair is a Melbourne-based writer and critic. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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