That Old Country Music

Kevin Barry is one of the world's most accomplished and gifted short story writers, and his third collection, Dark Lies the Island, is shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. The stories show an Ireland in a condition of great flux but also as a place where older rhythms and magic persist.

Format: Hardback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 15 October 2020
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd

SHORTLISTED FOR THE EDGE HILL SHORT STORY PRIZE


One of the finest collections you'll read this year, according to the Sunday Times. Wild, witty stories. . . .


Exhilarating, according to the Observer. Kevin Barry has been hailed as one of the world's most accomplished and gifted short story writers since his landmark debut collection, There Are Little Kingdoms, and its award-winning sequel in 2012, Dark Lies the Island.


Barry's lyric intensity, the vitality of his comedy, and the darkness of his vision recall the work of genre masters like Flannery O Connor and William Trevor, but he has forged a style that is patently his own.


In this rapturous third collection, we encounter a ragtag group of west of Ireland characters, many on the cusp between love and catastrophe, heartbreak and epiphany, resignation and hope. These stories show an Ireland in a state of great flux but also as a place where older rhythms and an older magic somehow persist.

Weight: 300g
Dimension: 144 x 223 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781782116219
Edition number: Main