Homesickness

'A mesmerisingly powerful book' SALLY ROONEY

Illuminating the lives of outcasts, misfits and malcontents, this is the darkly funny and moving second book from the award-winning author of Young Skins.

A quiet night in the neighbourhood pub is shattered by the arrival of a sword-wielding fugitive. A funeral party teeters on the edge of this world and the next, as ghosts won't settle. A shooting sees an everyday call-out lead a policewoman to confront the banality of her own existence.
In his new collection of stories, Colin Barrett takes us to the barren backwaters of County Mayo, via Canada - always with an eye for the abrupt and absurd.

'Superb... There is so much life in these pages' DOUGLAS STUART

'Fierce, tender...unforgettable' BRANDON TAYLOR

'Addictive, stylish and violently funny... Outstanding' KEVIN BARRY

Colin Barrett grew up in County Mayo, Ireland. His stories have been published in the Stinging Fly, Granta, Harper's and the New Yorker. His first book, the short story collection Young Skins, won the Guardian First Book Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His second collection, Homesickness, made the New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year and was a Book of the Year in Oprah Daily and the Irish Times.

A mesmerisingly powerful book, full of the strangeness and beauty of life. I've learned so much from Colin Barrett's work as a reader and writer...these stories are his best yet Sally Rooney