A book of short fiction by multiple award-winning author, Dorothy Simmons. This collection contains 21 new stories that deal with various themes centring on human relationships, critical choices, and casual cruelties. 

​

The stories in Only One Life are written from a female perspective. Central to each is the assertion of individual agency: the ability to take charge of your life, to make your own myth.

 

Some narratives envisage historical events, others explore contemporary issues. Sixteenth-century queens bury their differences, a refugee on Nauru paints the stars, a librarian re-enacts The Importance of Being Earnest, and a widow looks through a telescope at Jupiter rising.

 

In each story, the question is raised: whose life is this? And how have everyday choices and defining moments shaped it?