Released August 2026 from
Otago University Press (Landfall Tauraka Short Story Series)‘But I couldn’t go home just yet. I would not be a man in anyone’s eyes. That’s how I wound up working for Anton, servicing the coal ships stranded off the coast.’—from the story ‘Offshore Service’
In
Offshore Service and Other Stories, Craig Cliff explores the emotional, economic, cultural and climatic forces that drive our decisions.
Farmers search for purpose on holiday in Fiji.
A well-heeled Dunedin suburb receives an influx of refugees.
Tensions flare at an Anzac Day barbecue in Perth.
Playing out in recognisable settings these stories follow characters who find themselves beyond familiar shores, struggling to reconcile the passage of time, thwarted aspirations and unexpected responsibilities. What unfolds is explored with humour, heart and hopefulness through a mix of classic storytelling and innovative forms.
Offshore Service is a beautifully written and thoroughly readable collection about life here and now.
The word on the street
Wow. In Offshore Service
, Craig Cliff has written some of the best short stories that I have read in a while. Some old and familiar tropes — childhood, coming of age — are given fresh clothes and new voices, new prospects and horizons. This collection pushes the NZ short story into new trans-Tasman territory … Brisbane, Auckland, Ōtepoti, Freo. I admired the recursive ‘Connective Tissue’; it is very clever and very funny, and horribly true. Cliff’s characters check our vanities, ambitions and confusions. And he lands on gold with ‘Kia Kaha, Ōtepoti’ … That story is an absolute triumph, and I believe it will feature in anthologies for years and decades to come.—Lloyd Jones
Offshore Service
is a very good book. Readers wary of the short form will find ambitious stories here that broaden their scope across decades; readers wary of the gloomy drudge of New Zealand realism will find absurdist humour and playfulness with form... Cliff can charm us all: he can write poignant but unsentimental stories. He creates immersive worlds, vivid and detailed, for readers to explore, and he knows how important jobs are in most people's lives — both in the lives of his characters and the lives of his readers... Offshore Service deserves a place on prize lists next year; it demands to be read, right now.
In all, Offshore Service
is tender, visceral, poignant and penetrating. Not only for its authentic, sensitive and emotional portrayal of contemporary man, but also for the significant things it tells us about modern life.
