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The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story
Anne Enright has brought together a dazzling collection of Irish stories by authors born in the twentieth century – from Mary Lavin and Frank O'Connor to Claire Keegan and Kevin Barry. With a passionate introduction by Enright, The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story traces this great tradition through decades of social change and shows the pleasure Irish writers continue to take in the short-story form.
Deft and often devastating, these short stories dodge the rolling mythologies of Irish life to produce truths that are delightful and real. Includes Roddy Doyle, Elizabeth Bowen, Frank O’Connor, Seán Ó Faoláin, Edna O’Brien, Colm Tóibín, Clarie Keegan and William Trevor.
The road to the shore / Michael McLaverty --
The pram / Roddy Doyle --
An attack of hunger / Maeve Brennan --
Summer voices / John Banville --
Summer night / Elizabeth Bowen --
Music at Annahullion / Eugene McCabe --
Naming the names / Anne Devlin --
Shame / Keith Ridgway --
Memory and desire / Val Mulkerns --
The mad Lomasneys / Frank O'Connor --
Walking Away / Philip Ó Ceallaigh --
Villa Marta / Clare Boylan --
Lilacs / Mary Lavin --
Meles Vulgaris / Patrick Boyle --
The trout / Seán Ó Faoláin --
Night in Tunisia / Neil Jordan --
Sister Imelda / Edna O'Brien --
The key / John McGahern --
A priest in the family / Colm Tóibín --
The supremacy of grief / Hugo Hamilton --
The swing of things / Jennifer C Cornell --
Train Tracks / Aidan Mathews --
See the tree, how big it's grown / Kevin Barry --
Visit / Gerard Donovan --
Everything in this country must / Colum McCann --
Curfew / Sean O'Reilly --
Language, truth and lockjaw / Bernard MacLaverty --
Midwife to the fairies / Éilís Ní Dhuibhne --
Men and women / Clare Keegan --
Mothers were all the same / Joseph O'Connor --
The dressmaker's child / William Trevor
Deft and often devastating, these short stories dodge the rolling mythologies of Irish life to produce truths that are delightful and real. Includes Roddy Doyle, Elizabeth Bowen, Frank O’Connor, Seán Ó Faoláin, Edna O’Brien, Colm Tóibín, Clarie Keegan and William Trevor.
The road to the shore / Michael McLaverty --
The pram / Roddy Doyle --
An attack of hunger / Maeve Brennan --
Summer voices / John Banville --
Summer night / Elizabeth Bowen --
Music at Annahullion / Eugene McCabe --
Naming the names / Anne Devlin --
Shame / Keith Ridgway --
Memory and desire / Val Mulkerns --
The mad Lomasneys / Frank O'Connor --
Walking Away / Philip Ó Ceallaigh --
Villa Marta / Clare Boylan --
Lilacs / Mary Lavin --
Meles Vulgaris / Patrick Boyle --
The trout / Seán Ó Faoláin --
Night in Tunisia / Neil Jordan --
Sister Imelda / Edna O'Brien --
The key / John McGahern --
A priest in the family / Colm Tóibín --
The supremacy of grief / Hugo Hamilton --
The swing of things / Jennifer C Cornell --
Train Tracks / Aidan Mathews --
See the tree, how big it's grown / Kevin Barry --
Visit / Gerard Donovan --
Everything in this country must / Colum McCann --
Curfew / Sean O'Reilly --
Language, truth and lockjaw / Bernard MacLaverty --
Midwife to the fairies / Éilís Ní Dhuibhne --
Men and women / Clare Keegan --
Mothers were all the same / Joseph O'Connor --
The dressmaker's child / William Trevor
442 pages, Hardcover
First published January 15, 2011
58 people are currently reading
713 people want to read
About the author
Anne Enright
54 books1,385 followersAnne Enright was born in Dublin, where she now lives and works. She has published three volumes of stories, one book of nonfiction, and five novels. In 2015, she was named the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. Her novel The Gathering won the Man Booker Prize, and The Forgotten Waltz won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
October 29, 2017
A rich collection that mines the heart of what it is to be Irish: fighting colonialism, strangled by religion, divided by urban and rural sensibilities, and focussed on the internal over the external world, leading to various kinds of family dysfunction. The contributors’ credentials are impressive, all of them published several times over, many with multiple collections of short stories to their credit in addition to novels, screenplays and plays, and about a third belonging to the “by-invitation-only” literary club, Aosdána.
Several themes play out, and religion’s affect on families is brought out well in the stories: “The Road to the Shore,” where the sheltered lives of nuns and their submission to authority figures like Mother Superior when dealing with unexpected circumstances in the outside world is well drawn; so is the impact on a mother of giving up a child to the Holy Orders in “An Attack of Hunger”; or the more insidious impact when one’s son, a priest, is being accused of pedophilia in “A Priest in the Family.” The taboos that religion locks the country in is brilliantly delivered in “Mothers Were All the Same.” And talking of mothers, why does the mother in “Train Tracks” regularly peel her 12 year son’s foreskin, because “it will be good for him when he’s bigger” (did she mean ‘older’?), while discussing the saving power of scapulars with him?
The revolutionary struggle against British colonial masters comes out in “Naming the Names,” where love has to be subjugated to the cause; when night gangs of curfew breakers clash among themselves for turf in “Curfew,”; when a farmer would rather kill his horse rescued from drowning by British soldiers than accept their charity in “Everything in this Country Must.”
Urban/regional tensions surface in “Music at Annahuillion” where a piano is desired, but its value cannot be derived in a rural farmhouse people by three eccentric siblings; in “Midwife to the Fairies” where a urban midwife delivers a baby to a rural family with tragic results; in “Lilacs” where a smelly dung heap can become the new gold.
Family dysfunction is riddled throughout the collection, the best ones being, “Memory and Desire” where memories are strong and desire subtle, “The Supremacy of Grief” where people would rather focus on life than grieve over death no matter how much death is thrown in their face, and in “Men & Women” where years of humiliation and domination pushes a woman to literally take the steering wheel and leave her bullying husband stranded.
The writing styles veer towards narration over dialogue, and the dialogue, where it exists, has many accents. POV shifts happen suddenly; obviously these Irish writers haven’t been over-exposed to the writing mills in North America with their rigid rules for craft. The stories emerge as you dive into them and do not necessarily flow in a way that makes it easy for the reader to enter them; I had to re-read certain sections to comprehend what had just gone on. I noticed a subtle difference between the Northern Irish writers and their southern cousins; the former couldn’t disassociate from the “troubles” and had many more characters people their stories.
This is a slow read. Each story should be read and savoured. Each story will please, in its own way. I had to admit, upon reading this collection, that I agreed with the back cover blurb (for once) that “Irish writers have always punched well above their weight.”
Several themes play out, and religion’s affect on families is brought out well in the stories: “The Road to the Shore,” where the sheltered lives of nuns and their submission to authority figures like Mother Superior when dealing with unexpected circumstances in the outside world is well drawn; so is the impact on a mother of giving up a child to the Holy Orders in “An Attack of Hunger”; or the more insidious impact when one’s son, a priest, is being accused of pedophilia in “A Priest in the Family.” The taboos that religion locks the country in is brilliantly delivered in “Mothers Were All the Same.” And talking of mothers, why does the mother in “Train Tracks” regularly peel her 12 year son’s foreskin, because “it will be good for him when he’s bigger” (did she mean ‘older’?), while discussing the saving power of scapulars with him?
The revolutionary struggle against British colonial masters comes out in “Naming the Names,” where love has to be subjugated to the cause; when night gangs of curfew breakers clash among themselves for turf in “Curfew,”; when a farmer would rather kill his horse rescued from drowning by British soldiers than accept their charity in “Everything in this Country Must.”
Urban/regional tensions surface in “Music at Annahuillion” where a piano is desired, but its value cannot be derived in a rural farmhouse people by three eccentric siblings; in “Midwife to the Fairies” where a urban midwife delivers a baby to a rural family with tragic results; in “Lilacs” where a smelly dung heap can become the new gold.
Family dysfunction is riddled throughout the collection, the best ones being, “Memory and Desire” where memories are strong and desire subtle, “The Supremacy of Grief” where people would rather focus on life than grieve over death no matter how much death is thrown in their face, and in “Men & Women” where years of humiliation and domination pushes a woman to literally take the steering wheel and leave her bullying husband stranded.
The writing styles veer towards narration over dialogue, and the dialogue, where it exists, has many accents. POV shifts happen suddenly; obviously these Irish writers haven’t been over-exposed to the writing mills in North America with their rigid rules for craft. The stories emerge as you dive into them and do not necessarily flow in a way that makes it easy for the reader to enter them; I had to re-read certain sections to comprehend what had just gone on. I noticed a subtle difference between the Northern Irish writers and their southern cousins; the former couldn’t disassociate from the “troubles” and had many more characters people their stories.
This is a slow read. Each story should be read and savoured. Each story will please, in its own way. I had to admit, upon reading this collection, that I agreed with the back cover blurb (for once) that “Irish writers have always punched well above their weight.”
September 16, 2013
from my facebook postings:
I've fallen in love! With Elizabeth Bowen's short story, Summer Night, which I came across in The Granta Book of Irish Short stories. I had a strange experience reading it. At first, past midnight night, sleepy, I found it to be a huge challenge even on the sentence level and threw it down in dismay. In the morning I forced myself to try it again (Does sound like love, doesn't it?). The story is remarkable for many reasons not least because it employs multiple points of view, and for its observations of the natural and meteorologic environment via a plot hinging on a new technology, the telephone. If you know of other works of fiction with plot elements hinging on the use of, or the absence (like House of Mirth) of the telephone, of any era, will you let me know? thanks -
and, later:
Another mesmerizer from the Granta Book of the Irish Short Story - Eugene McCabe's Music at Annahullion. What an amazing experience reading this book is turning out to be - and if I had to say, so far, what characterizes an Irish Story, I'd say that it enacts the intersection between despair and celebration. All of the stories so far turn on a precise moment of disappointment...and yet the effect is of a kind of ebullient endurance. Kudos to editor Anne Enright!
I've fallen in love! With Elizabeth Bowen's short story, Summer Night, which I came across in The Granta Book of Irish Short stories. I had a strange experience reading it. At first, past midnight night, sleepy, I found it to be a huge challenge even on the sentence level and threw it down in dismay. In the morning I forced myself to try it again (Does sound like love, doesn't it?). The story is remarkable for many reasons not least because it employs multiple points of view, and for its observations of the natural and meteorologic environment via a plot hinging on a new technology, the telephone. If you know of other works of fiction with plot elements hinging on the use of, or the absence (like House of Mirth) of the telephone, of any era, will you let me know? thanks -
and, later:
Another mesmerizer from the Granta Book of the Irish Short Story - Eugene McCabe's Music at Annahullion. What an amazing experience reading this book is turning out to be - and if I had to say, so far, what characterizes an Irish Story, I'd say that it enacts the intersection between despair and celebration. All of the stories so far turn on a precise moment of disappointment...and yet the effect is of a kind of ebullient endurance. Kudos to editor Anne Enright!
August 13, 2012
I wanted to love this book. Thirty-one Irish short stories - and no more than half of them (maybe not even half) delighted or touched or dazzled me. And many of those that fit that category were re-reads for me. Enright's short introduction is excellent: concise and direct. Reading it, I expected an array of stories that would overwhelm me (never imagining that all would, of course). But I was so often underwhelmed here. The very best stories in the collection,for me, were those by: Anne Devlin, Edna O'Brien, Colm Toibin, Keven Barry (I'm just getting introduced to his work, and so far, I think it's splendid), Colum McCann, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Claire Keegan, Joseph O'Connor, William Trevor. But, again, many were re-reads. And a few others were good. It bothered me that so many didn't make the mark for me.
January 7, 2023
Found it in the second-hand book stand of the International Bazaar in Luxembourg (as you do), and started reading really eagerly, as I love short stories and Ireland and all things Irish, but I must confess, it was sometimes hard going for an uninitiated foreigner. Lots of the stories are full of half-hidden, half-unsaid allusions to history, religion and social conflicts. To thoroughly enjoy the stories and understand the mindset, I should've done lots of additional context research. Not saying I won't take it up after a while.
EDIT: I finally read the wonderful introduction by Anne Enright. Mea culpa - should've read it both before and after the short stories. Answers most of my questions and gives greater appetite for yet more Irish writing.
EDIT: I finally read the wonderful introduction by Anne Enright. Mea culpa - should've read it both before and after the short stories. Answers most of my questions and gives greater appetite for yet more Irish writing.
Read
April 1, 2024I recently did a course on short stories which made use of this anthology. So I haven't completed the book but have read eleven of the stories.
Men and Women by Claire Keegan *****
The Dressmaker's Child by William Trevor *****
(these were both brilliant, outstanding)
The Mad Lomasneys by Frank O'Connor ****
A Priest in the Family by Colm Toibin ****
Everything in This Country Must by Colum McCann ****
(the McCann story being as bleak a tale as you'll find)
Night in Tunisia by Neil Jordan ***
Sister Imelda by Edna O'Brien ***
Music at Annahullion by Eugene McCabe **
Walking Away by Philip O'Ceallaigh **
The Key by John McGahern **
See the Tree, How Big It's Grown by Keven Barry **
Men and Women by Claire Keegan *****
The Dressmaker's Child by William Trevor *****
(these were both brilliant, outstanding)
The Mad Lomasneys by Frank O'Connor ****
A Priest in the Family by Colm Toibin ****
Everything in This Country Must by Colum McCann ****
(the McCann story being as bleak a tale as you'll find)
Night in Tunisia by Neil Jordan ***
Sister Imelda by Edna O'Brien ***
Music at Annahullion by Eugene McCabe **
Walking Away by Philip O'Ceallaigh **
The Key by John McGahern **
See the Tree, How Big It's Grown by Keven Barry **
January 1, 2020
Some great stories in here, covering the full 20th century. The stories are all of an Ireland that seems 50 years behind the rest of the world, but is no worse off for that. It's a very mixed collection, spanning about 100 years. The language, values and conflicts are engrossing. There is some very droll humour and of course the presence of the Church, a black-cassocked presence watching over everything. Hard to pick a favourite, tragedy competing with humour, romantic with political. Roddy Doyle's "The Pram" is a great modern story, with gothic aspects alongside portrayal of a new form of domestic servitude: the Eastern European immigrant. Bernard MacLaverty's "Language, Truth and Lockjaw" is both funny and poignant, in Clare Keegan's "Men and women" the tables are turned in bitter marriage, with things brought to a head by a misunderstanding about a raffle result. Of such minutiae the living experience of life are seen through a microscope. Editor Anne Enright provides some interesting comments in her introduction - not flattering about the English, but then this is Ireland.
October 27, 2021
Like most of the Irish literature I’ve read, these stories were dense, subtle, and often very contextual. More than once, I had to look up some local slang that I hadn’t come across before, research a little bit of Irish politics or history, or even search for an analysis of a story whose message was so subtle. On one hand, this makes for a little bit of a tedious read, but, if you’re willing to do the work, it’s very rewarding.
February 8, 2017
An interesting collection of short stories, but generally rather grim and a bit obsessed with nuns!
June 26, 2022
Great selection of stories from some of Ireland's best writers past and present. Having read this book makes me want to explore further works of these great author's.
June 24, 2023
This is a great collection
Ratings for each individual short story + medals for my favorites:
The Road to the Shore: 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
The Pram: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌘
An Attack of Hunger: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
Summer Voices: 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
Summer Night: 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
Music at Annahullion: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
Naming the Names: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 🥇
Shame: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
Memory and Desire: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
The Mad Lomasneys: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌖 🥈
Walking Away: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
Villa Marta: 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
Lilacs: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
Meles Vulgaris: 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
The Trout: 🌕🌕🌕🌖🌑
Night in Tunisia: 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
Sister Imelda: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
The Key: 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
A Priest in the Family: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌘
The Supremacy of Grief: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
The Swing of Things: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
Train Tracks: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
See the Tree, How Big It's Grown: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
Visit: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
Everything in this County Must: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌖 🥉
Curfew: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
Language, Truth and Lockjaw: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
Midwife to the Fairies: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌘
Men and Women: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌘
Mothers Were All the Same: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
The Dressmaker's Child: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
Ratings for each individual short story + medals for my favorites:
The Road to the Shore: 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
The Pram: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌘
An Attack of Hunger: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
Summer Voices: 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
Summer Night: 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
Music at Annahullion: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
Naming the Names: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 🥇
Shame: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
Memory and Desire: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
The Mad Lomasneys: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌖 🥈
Walking Away: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
Villa Marta: 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
Lilacs: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
Meles Vulgaris: 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
The Trout: 🌕🌕🌕🌖🌑
Night in Tunisia: 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
Sister Imelda: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
The Key: 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
A Priest in the Family: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌘
The Supremacy of Grief: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
The Swing of Things: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
Train Tracks: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
See the Tree, How Big It's Grown: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
Visit: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
Everything in this County Must: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌖 🥉
Curfew: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
Language, Truth and Lockjaw: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
Midwife to the Fairies: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌘
Men and Women: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌘
Mothers Were All the Same: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
The Dressmaker's Child: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
October 18, 2016
"Music at Annahullian" by Eugene McCabe is a master piece. There are a few not so exciting stories in the collection, but overall it's a very good collection.
April 2, 2019
Short story collections are virtually always hit-or-miss. In this collection, I'd rate quite a few stories as "misses," but the "hits" are well worth the time. Humor, tragedy, emotion, and other sentiments run through the various stories here. "The Road to the Shore" and "An Attack of Hunger," stories that come along early in the collection, were high favorites of mine. Several stories didn't really make much sense (at least, not to me). Perhaps I'm too impatient with certain writing styles. In any event, I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in the varied story lines of folks living in today's Ireland.
December 4, 2019
It was like a voyage throughout Ireland (and not only), with all its habits and social traditions.
The naturalism of some texts (Patrick Boyle's "Meles Vulgaris, or Colm Tóibín's "A priest in the family"), coagulated with the familial dramas of the others (Roddy Doyle's "The pram", or Maeve Brennan's "An attack of hunger") represents the bedrocks of all those fragments, filled with the sensation of wondering in no men's land. Every character is stuck between several undefined desires, between giving up and going on like nothing has happened.
The naturalism of some texts (Patrick Boyle's "Meles Vulgaris, or Colm Tóibín's "A priest in the family"), coagulated with the familial dramas of the others (Roddy Doyle's "The pram", or Maeve Brennan's "An attack of hunger") represents the bedrocks of all those fragments, filled with the sensation of wondering in no men's land. Every character is stuck between several undefined desires, between giving up and going on like nothing has happened.
April 27, 2020
As good a collection of short stories as any you’ll find, most semiprecious, a few rare jewels, running the gamut of human emotions while collectively composing a deeper, more intimate portrait of Ireland and the Irish than any one story might.
September 19, 2020
An excellent collection.
December 25, 2022
A few great stories but overall a dreary selection.
March 25, 2023
Some of them were great. Others not at all.
July 3, 2024
Some of the stories in this book gave me a good night sleep.
December 3, 2024
Some sad, some funny, all really well written. I love Granta!
February 6, 2025
A good cross section of Irish short stories. I especially enjoyed Aidan Mathews, Joseph O'Connor and Will Trevor.
August 5, 2025
Proxy for ‘The Bridge Stood Fast’ - New Yorker short story discussed w Ann’s book club. Father/daughter coming of age and throw in a creepy grandfather.
February 6, 2017
A varied collection with moments of real brilliance and real boredom
Want to read
September 27, 2025Read so far:
*The road to the shore / Michael McLaverty --
The pram / Roddy Doyle --
An attack of hunger / Maeve Brennan --
Summer voices / John Banville --
Summer night / Elizabeth Bowen --1
*Music at Annahullion / Eugene McCabe --
Naming the names / Anne Devlin --2
Shame / Keith Ridgway --
Memory and desire / Val Mulkerns --
*The mad Lomasneys / Frank O'Connor --
Walking away / Philip Ó Ceallaigh --
Villa Marta / Clare Boylan --
Lilacs / Mary Lavin --3
*Meles vulgaris / Patrick Boyle --
*The trout / Séan Ó Faoláin --
Night in Tunisia / Neil Jordan --1
Sister Imelda / Edna O'Brien --3
The key / John McGahern --
A priest in the family / Colm Tóibín --
The supremacy of grief / Hugo Hamilton --
The swing of things / Jennifer C Cornell --
Train tracks / Aidan Mathews --
See the tree, how big it's grown / Kevin Barry --
Visit / Gerard Donovan --
*Everything in this country must / Colum McCann --
Curfew / Sean O'Reilly --
*Language, truth and lockjaw / Bernard MacLaverty --
Midwife to the fairies / Éilís Ní Dhuibhne --
Men and women / Clare Keegan --
Mothers were all the same / Joseph O'Connor --
*The dressmaker's child / William Trevor--
*The road to the shore / Michael McLaverty --
The pram / Roddy Doyle --
An attack of hunger / Maeve Brennan --
Summer voices / John Banville --
Summer night / Elizabeth Bowen --1
*Music at Annahullion / Eugene McCabe --
Naming the names / Anne Devlin --2
Shame / Keith Ridgway --
Memory and desire / Val Mulkerns --
*The mad Lomasneys / Frank O'Connor --
Walking away / Philip Ó Ceallaigh --
Villa Marta / Clare Boylan --
Lilacs / Mary Lavin --3
*Meles vulgaris / Patrick Boyle --
*The trout / Séan Ó Faoláin --
Night in Tunisia / Neil Jordan --1
Sister Imelda / Edna O'Brien --3
The key / John McGahern --
A priest in the family / Colm Tóibín --
The supremacy of grief / Hugo Hamilton --
The swing of things / Jennifer C Cornell --
Train tracks / Aidan Mathews --
See the tree, how big it's grown / Kevin Barry --
Visit / Gerard Donovan --
*Everything in this country must / Colum McCann --
Curfew / Sean O'Reilly --
*Language, truth and lockjaw / Bernard MacLaverty --
Midwife to the fairies / Éilís Ní Dhuibhne --
Men and women / Clare Keegan --
Mothers were all the same / Joseph O'Connor --
*The dressmaker's child / William Trevor--
September 11, 2013
I loved this collection of contemporary Irish short stories. It contains some really unique views of Ireland chosen by the editor Anne Enright because she liked them and felt like they spoke and dripped the essence of the Irish. The tales are a mixed bag, several about children, many about unusual views of love, some about jobs, some about international relations including with ones about the English-Irish conflicts, many, many focused on dysfunctional relationships, some with feminist attitudes. Many grabbed the Irish landscape and painted it in as backdrop into the story. They start off somewhat depressing but turned eventually toward humor. There's thirty tales from 1929 on to current--many written in the 2000s.
October 13, 2014
My daughter brought a copy back from Ireland for me as a little souvenir of her visit to Dublin.
I have really become interested in the short story form, and the authors all delivered well here.
The use of language is so different, unique, it was almost like I was reading very fluently in a foreign tongue at times.
I found this book to be a real teaser, and I want to explore many more of them in depth. I will be in Ireland next year and plan to haunt bookshops to pick up whatever I can by Anne Devlin, Edna O'Brien and many of the others that I enjoyed.
I have really become interested in the short story form, and the authors all delivered well here.
The use of language is so different, unique, it was almost like I was reading very fluently in a foreign tongue at times.
I found this book to be a real teaser, and I want to explore many more of them in depth. I will be in Ireland next year and plan to haunt bookshops to pick up whatever I can by Anne Devlin, Edna O'Brien and many of the others that I enjoyed.
January 16, 2011
A nice collection. Highlights include short stories by William Trevor, Colm Toibin and a beautifully sad story of dreaming and yearning by Eugene McCabe called "Music at Annahullion". The volume is worth buying for this alone.
May 28, 2013
Mixed. I loved some of the stories but was less enthusiastic about others, hence only three stars rather than the four I wanted to give. The stories I loved, though, were fantastic! So well worth a read, just don't feel you have to love it all.
May 14, 2016
Like many of the Granta books this was better in some parts than others - but on the whole was excellent.
Ann Enright did an excellent job, I felt that there was an "Irishness" in every story, whether it be modern or traditional. Plenty of charm and plenty of pure writing talent.
Ann Enright did an excellent job, I felt that there was an "Irishness" in every story, whether it be modern or traditional. Plenty of charm and plenty of pure writing talent.
January 26, 2012
fab - recommended.
March 11, 2014
Loved it
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews