The Boatman and Other Stories

(Paperback)

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The poignant short story collection from the Costa-shortlisted Irish writer who 'grips from the opening page' (Bernard MacLaverty) The breathtaking short story collection from the Costa-shortlisted Irish writer Three gunshots on the Irish border define the course of a young man's life; a writer clings fast to a star-crossed affair with a woman who has never been fully in his reach; a fisherman accustomed to hard labour rolls up his sleeves to dig a grave for his child; a pair of newly-weds embark on their first adventure, living wild on the deserted Beginish Island. Spanning a century and two continents - from the muddy fields of Ireland to a hotel room in Paris, a dingy bar in Segovia to an aeroplane bound for Taipei - these densely layered tales reveal the quiet heroism and gentle dignity of ordinary life. Ranging from the elegiac to the brutally confrontational, Billy O'Callaghan's stories explore the resilience of the human heart and its ability to keep beating even in the wake of grief, trauma and lost love. 'The best fiction I have read this year... Taut, subtle and moving, and brought off beautifully' John Banville, Best Books of 2020, Irish Times

Reviews

The best fiction I have read this year is Billy O'Callaghan's short-story collection The Boatman. The book is old-fashioned in the best sense, in that it is written by a grown-up for grown-up persons, as Virginia Woolf said of Middlemarch. The stories are taut, subtle and moving, and brought off beautifully. -- John Banville * Irish Times *Best Books of 2020* *
Wonderful stories A masterclass... The reader is lulled into a false sense of ordinariness that gives way sometimes gradually, sometimes abruptly to a moment of cataclysmthat leaves the reader reeling There is no denying the power of his words OCallaghans stories are beautiful, plain and simple, and each one is devastatingly good. -- Kathleen MacMahon * Sunday Times *
Billy O'Callaghan writes beautifully... In evoking atmosphere, such a key element in the short story, he is matchless... His prose is a feast after a famine... The luxuriance of the language, the agility of the sentences, and the depth of the reflections. These stories are like classical sonatas... The writing is invariably delightful. -- Eilis Ni Dhuibhne * Irish Times *
A shining example of how [short stories] can distil and intensify a writers gifts These 12 stories confirm [OCallaghans] delicate craftsmanship, unflashy narrative and descriptive skill, and his deep understanding of powerful and universal emotions Breathtaking Masterly Irish writing has put out many new and more consciously modernist shoots in recent years, all welcome. But Billy OCallaghan belongs now in the recognised front rank, along with Bernard MacLaverty, Edna OBrien, William Trevor and Colm Tibn. -- Ann Chisholm * Tablet, *Novel of the Week* *
[Billy OCallaghan] makes epics out of the unspoken, the barely said, the half-hinted at, the wordless nod This is O'Callaghan's quest, to reveal who his characters really are, especially when they're burdened with life's cruelties. And in chronicling the bravery sometimes required in simply putting one foot in front of the other, he makes heroes of the humblest of us. -- Anne Cunningham * Sunday Independent *

Author Bio

Billy O'Callaghan is the author of the critically acclaimed novel My Coney Island Baby, which has been translated into nine languages and was shortlisted for the Encore Award 2020. Stories in his short-story collection The Boatman and Other Stories were shortlisted for the Costa Short Story Award and for Writie.ie Short Story of the Year in the An Post Irish Book Awards. He lives in Douglas, a village on the edge of Cork City.