The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story - Tapa blanda

A rich and absorbing volume, an evocation of life in Ireland which, at its finest, produces brilliantly skewering fragments written to pierce as well as gleam ... Enright's choice is a shrewd one, succeeding in typifying each writer whilst expressing their uniqueness - Tom Adair, Scotland on Sunday [Anne Enright's] witty, brilliant introduction is one of the jewels in this selection ... When making her choices she concentrated on the art rather than the Irishness, and the result is sometimes wonderfully unexpected - here are William Trevor, Colm Toibin, Roddy Doyle, Clare Boylan and all the other geniuses, but not as you think you know them. Unmissable. - Kate Saunders, The Times There's much to enjoy in this selection of 31 stories, which honours such neglected writers as Val Mulkerns, Patrick Boyle and Michael McLaverty, while demonstrating that Colm Toibin, Claire Keegan, Kevin Barry and others are bringing to the Irish short story a continuing vibrancy - Irish Independent Full of tales that combine lyricism, humour and tragedy by the likes of William Trevor as well as relative newcomers such as Claire Keegan and Philip o Ceallaigh, it is shot through with an enduring sense of place but at the same time marks the enormous social changes Ireland has undergone in the past century - Giles Foden, Conde Nast Traveller In an elegant and considered introduction to this collection, [Enright] explains that these short stories are simply ones she enjoys. However, the 31 inclusions cannot but say something about Ireland ... 'A Priest in the Family' by Colm Toibin is superb ... Edna O'Brien offers another fresh take on the sexuality of the clergy ... The further positives of The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story are too many to mention ... In this collection you encounter loners, outsiders and deeper versions of people you know; and eventually, one will say something just to you, and the mystery of the Irish short story comes as close as it can to being

Nostalgic, dark, comic, iconoclastic, the Irish short story has always punched well above its weight. Anne Enright has brought together a dazzling collection of Irish stories written in the last sixty years, by authors from Elizabeth Bowen and Frank O'Connor to Claire Keegan and Kevin Barry. With a pithy and passionate introduction by Enright, The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story traces this great tradition through decades of social change, and shows the ease and pleasure Irish writers continue to take in the short story form. There is no truth so telling as a small truth, or so much fun. Also includes stories by: Maeve Brennan Mary Lavin William Trevor John McGahern Colum McCann Colm Toibin