Author(s): Dulcie Castree

NZ Fiction

Written in 1985–86, A Surfeit of Sunsets was picked up by a publisher but publication fell through. Years later Dulcie Castree’s grandson Finnbar, decided the novel had to be published before she died, so he digitised it and handbound a copy as a gift for Christmas 2015. In 2016 the Castree family released a limited print run of the book, with a cover designed by Finn and the book typeset and printed by Murdoch Stephens and Rebel Press. Dulcie died before the launch, but A Surfeit of Sunsets hit the bestsellers list and sold out, one copy ending up with publisher Mary McCallum of Mākaro Press who offered to reissue it, and so work began on this  new edition.

The seaside town of Taiwhenua is besieged by sunsets. They arrive every evening and don’t leave until dark.

It’s the mid-1980s, and Shirley has just moved there from Wellington city with a box of books and a broken heart. The last thing she needs is operatic sunsets, the unwelcome advances of the Pukunui Literary Society, and the newly widowed Poesy who writes bad poetry and has escaped the city for a bach bigger than most Taiwhenua dwellings.

What Shirley does need is May, sunny by nature, and just happy to be her friend. But does May need Shirley, or has the outsider upset the fine balance of life in this coastal town, setting in train something everyone will come to regret?