Opportunity

"One of the most gripping books of short stories I've ever read...Grimshaw's imagination and vision is astonishing... Her prose is spare and amazingly expressive... a book to read compulsively and reread for its subtlety, penetration and sheer brilliance."
– Writers' Radio, Adelaide

 A man confronts death after an operation, a devout Christian encounters a man who hurt her long ago, a secretary uncovers her boss's secret shame. And in a house in Auckland an elderly woman is writing the last book of her life, one which, she says, contains all of her crimes. How are the characters connected and who is writing the stories?

Each of these stories is an inspection of motive, rich in vivid insight into a diverse range of lives. Together they form a unified whole. Opportunity is a book about storytelling, about generosity and opportunism; above all it is a celebration of the subtleties of human impulse, of what Katherine Mansfield called the LIFE of life.

 In 2007 Opportunity was shortlisted for the world's richest short story award, the Frank O'Connor International Award

Winner 2008 Montana Prize for Fiction

Winner 2008 Montana Medal for Fiction or Poetry

"A darkly glittering achievement." - The Dominion Post

"A writer with impressive command of style and subject... It's riddling and rewarding. Appreciate its skill. Acknowledge its depth." - The New Zealand Herald

"Beautifully crafted, colourful and hard to keep to yourself. A sense of detail, vividly narrated, gives the whole book a richness that belies its simplicity of structure... Never heavy, always one step ahead of the reader in terms of black humor and unexpected outcome, Opportunity deserves to be read aloud." - Capital Times

"Charlotte Grimshaw just keeps getting better and better." - Next

"The best Charlotte Grimshaw stories combine her unflinching eye with real emotional insight." - New Zealand Listener