Kelly M Pontes

Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences.

When Roger Ackroyd is found dead in his study the day after his fiancée’s unexpected suicide, the illustrious detective Hercule Poirot comes out of retirement to take on the complicated case. Only a handful of close friends and family saw Roger Ackroyd the day he died, but almost all have solid alibis and were seemingly nowhere near him at his time of death. But as Poirot’s investigation uncovers new details, the suspects’ alibis begin to unravel, and nearly everyone reveals themselves to have ample motive and opportunity to be the culprit.

Tuck is slow to understand the circumstances that have driven her family to an uninhabited island off the coast of Maine, the former home of her deceased grandmother where she once spent her childhood summers. Squatting there now, she must care for her spirited young daughter and scrape together enough money to leave before winter arrives—or before they are found out. Relying on the island for sustenance and answers, Tuck lives moment-by-moment through the absurdity, beauty, paranoia, and hunger that shoot through her life, as her husband struggles to detox.