Beneath the Earth - Tapa dura

"The best of the best . . . These revealing stories, unfolding like intimate confessions, will twist your heart." (Daily Mail)

"Boyne offers writing of insight and beauty that elevates this collection to impressive heights indeed, and confirms him as one of Ireland's finest contemporary writers" (Observer)

"Boyne has achieved a careful authenticity . . . Beneath the Earth is a satisfying and polished set of short stories with definite longevity and immense global appeal." (Irish Independent)

"[Beneath the Earth] tracks the light and dark of Ireland’s past and present . . . Boyne is particularly strong on dramatising child and teen sensibilities but here we see how the badness of adults spills over and infects these damaged children." (Independent)

In this collection of twelve dark, unerring and surprising short stories, John Boyne explores the extremities of the human condition in all its brilliance and brutality. The secrets we keep and the ways in which they shape us, the impossibility of shared loss, the lengths we will go to in order to protect our families and the distance we will run to protect ourselves.
Drawing on a host of enthralling characters – a farmer, a cuckold and a teenager exploring his sexuality; good parents, bad parents, writers and soldiers; a student, a rent boy and a hitman – Boyne examines the hopeful and the damaged without prejudice or judgement.
This, his first collection of short stories, is some of John Boyne’s finest writing to date. It includes ‘Rest Day’ which won the 2015 Writing.ie Short Story of the Year award in Ireland. The collection has also been longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize 2016.