Willard, his mother and his girlfriend Nyla have spent their entire lives in an endless journey where daily survival is dictated by the ultimate imperative: obey the rules, or you will lose your place in the Line.

Everything changes the day Willard’s mother dies and he finds a strange book hidden among her few belongings ...

In its Beckettian sparseness, Line pushes the boundaries of speculative, high-concept fiction. Deeply moving, it also touches on many of the pressing issues of our turbulent world: migration and the refugee crisis, big data and the erosion of democracy, climate change, colonialism, economic exploitation, social conformity and religious fanaticism.

Niall Bourke's short stories have been shortlisted for numerous awards including the Costa Short Story Award, the Hennessey New Irish Writing Award and the Over the Edge New Writer Award. Niall graduated from the Goldsmiths creative writing/teaching MA in 2015 with a distinction.