Status Updates From The Boatman and Other Stori...

This is really good

"The heart wants what it wants, but will often learn to settle for what it can get"

Most of this is relentlessly,guttingly sad, but O'Callaghan has a mordant sense of humor and boy oh boy can he write.

I thought The Border Fox and The Boatman had scooped out my organs. Then I read Ruins and realized some of them must have survived because I was eviscerated anew. I have read so many extraordinary books set during The Troubles -- The Border Fox was among the best. Its truths are so universal and so relevant.