Adult Book of the Month
The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story
edited with an introduction by Anne Enright
Published by Granta Books, 2010
Anne Enright has assembled a rich new collection of 31
Irish short stories by authors born in the twentieth century – from
the classic short story of Frank O'Connor and Mary Lavin, to contemporary
writers like Aidan Mathews and Claire Keegan.
With an introduction by Enright, the book traces this great tradition
through decades of social change, and shows the pleasure Irish writers
continue to take in the short story form.
As with any collection such as this, there will be debate as to the omissions. Enright says that in the end she chose stories because she liked them and because she wanted "to put together a book that was varied and good to read, with a strong eye to the contemporary". She says “When there is much rubbish talked about a country, when the air is full of large ideas about what we are, or what we are not, then the writer offers truths that are delightful and small. We write against our own foolishness, not anyone else’s. In which case the short story is as good a place as any other to keep things real.” This collection, covering a wide range of subject matters, dodges the rolling mythologies of Irish life to produce truths that are delightful and real.
'Here are William Trevor, Colm Tóibín,
Roddy Doyle, Clare Boylan and all the other geniuses ... Unmissable' The
Times
'More cherishable than canonical, and refreshingly contemporary in its
selection of writers and writerly concerns' Times Literary Supplement
