Dark as Last Night

Dark as Last Night is a 2021 short story collection by the Australian author Tony Birch originally published by University of Queensland Press.^[1]

It was the winner of the 2022 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction.^[2]

The collection consists of 15 stories, all published here for the first time.^[3]

• "After Life"
• "Bobby Moses"
• "Bicycle Thieves"
• "Probate"
• "Starman"
• "The Blood Bank : A Love Story"
• "The Death of Michael McGuire"
• "The Manger"
• "Together"
• "The Librarian"
• "Animal Welfare"
• "Flight"
• "Without Sin"
• "Lemonade"
• "Riding Trains with Thelma Plum"

Joseph Cummins calls Birch a "master of the short story" in his review of the collection in The Guardian. He commented: "Tony Birch's short stories are precious gems. Written in a deceptively simple prose, the pages of Dark as Last Night capture the humanity, courage and humour of characters in the midst of life."^[4]

In Australian Book Review Anthony Lynch noted that, as with the author's previous collection, this book "contains an abundance of sad stories, but with grief and trauma ameliorated by the main protagonist's affection for at least one other character, be it a family member or neighbour." And while he then went on to say: "These vivid, empathetic realist stories, untouched by postmodernism, make few demands on the reader in regard to style, plot, or character motivation", he does conclude that these are "stories that stay with us".^[5]

• Dedication: For Charlie Atticus Burke — arrived in the world on 27 November 2020 — a cousin for Isabel Kit and Archie James.

• 2022 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards – Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, winner^[2]
• 2022 Prime Minister's Literary Awards – Fiction, shortlisted^[6]

• 2021 in Australian literature