The Best New Irish Short Stories 2005 Author:David Marcus (Editor) Including original stories by Neil Jordan, Gerard Donovan, Edna O'Brien, Roddy Doyle, Colum McCann, Claire Keegan, Colm Toibin, Niall Williams, and Mary Morrissy, this stunning collection of short stories illustrates the vibrancy and eclecticism of contemporary Irish writing. In Roddy Doyle's The Joke, a middle-aged man sits eavesdroppin... more »g on his wife's conversation with a friend, at once bitter and sweetly yearning; in Sophia Hillan's The Cocktail Hour, a couple wander the night haunted and lost in a reverie of the Jazz Age; in Bernard MacLaverty's Matters of Life and Death, two young brothers spend the night at the house of the local doctor and his wife, and together the four of them end up in a revelrous late night dance. From Ireland to the United States, rural Peru to the mountains of the Himalayas, these pieces collectively and individually demonstrate the complexity of emotion and memory that is associated with the very finest short stories, and bears testimony to the fact that the form is still alive and flourishing.
Includes:
Another country / Molly McCloskey
The joke / Roddy Doyle
Organ recital / Gillman Noonan
Different city different state / Paula Cunningham
Harry Dietz / Gerard Donovan
Cold front / Blanaid McKinney
Faithless-heart / Coilin O Haodha
Hy-Brasil / Mary Burke
Surrender / William Wall
They need no motorcars / Julia O'Faolain
Matters of life and death / Bernard MacLaverty
A good turn / George O'Brien
Drag / Mary Morrisey
The Berkeley complex / Neil Jordan
The homesick industry / Hugo Hamilton
The forester's daughter / Claire Keegan
What is it called, your country, behind the mountain? / Colum McCann