Product Description
A paperback first edition, 3rd printing of the debut collection by Colin Barrett, signed by the author at an event in Limerick in November 2014, undedicated, no other marks or inscriptions. The Irish edition predates the UK ( Jonathan Cape 2014) & US ( Morrow 2015) editions, being published by Stinging Fly Press in Sept 2013. Stinging Fly are the original publishers of much of what is new and good in Irish short fiction.
176pp. 9781906539276, royal pb, cover design by Fergal Condon.
SHORTLISTED FOR The Guardian First Book award 2014.
This book is the winner of the 2014 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. It was longlisted for the 2014 Guardian First Book Award. This magnificent collection takes us to Glanbeigh, a small town in rural Ireland - a town in which the youth have the run of the place. Boy racers speed down the back lanes; couples haunt the midnight woods; young skins huddle in the cold once. The Peacock has closed its doors. Here the young live hard and wear the scars. It matters whose sister you were seen with. If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, it matters a very great deal. Colin Barrett's debut does not take us to Glanbeigh alone; there are other towns, and older characters. But each story is defined by a youth lived in a crucible of menace and desire - and each crackles with the uniform energy and force that distinguish this terrific collection.
"A recovering addict drifts closer to the oblivion he'd hoped to avoid by returning to his home town; two estranged friends hide themselves away in a darkened pub, reluctant to attend the funeral of the woman they both loved; a bouncer who cannot envisage a world beyond the walls of the small town nightclub his life revolves around. Set for the most part in the fictional County Mayo town of Glanbeigh, Colin Barrett's stories deftly explore the wayward lives and loves of young men and women in contemporary post-boom Ireland. Young Skins offers an utterly unique reading experience and marks the appearance of an arresting and innovative new voice in Irish writing"
