Colin Barrett

homesickness

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One of the Observer's Debut Novels of 2024

Wild Houses

Calm With Horses

Young Skins

Homesickness

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

Full of humour and small-town Irish colour... His [Barrett's] second collection confirms him as one of the very best short-story writers in the business

A masterwork - by turns hilarious and heartbreaking... What fierce, tender stories. Totally unforgettable

The stories in Homesickness are crafted with skill and flair. Colin Barrett anchors the work with emotional accuracy and careful delineation of character, and then, using metaphors and beautifully made sentences, he lets his narrative soar

Lyrical and tough and smart... His stories are set in a familiar emotional landscape, but they give us endings that are new

Addictive, stylish and violently funny stories, with riches on every page - an outstanding collection

Shot through with dark humor, pitch-perfect dialogue and a signature freshness that makes life palpable on the page...Homesickness is graced with an original, lingering beauty

Even though we rarely enter their internal worlds, Colin Barrett conjures interiority through his linguistic precision and attention to external detail, so that each story lingers in the mind and haunts its successors

Superb...[T]here is an utterness to his attention, a devotion to the lives of his characters, that shifts the work into some more lasting place. Barrett is already one of the leading writers of the Irish short story, which is to braggingly say, one of the leading writers of the short story anywhere. He means every word and regrets every word. He just kills it

Something struck me as I read these beautifully crafted, desperately sad, but often very funny stories: there is now a branch of English called the Colin Barrett

This is a beautiful and moving collection, from one of the best story writers today.

Homesickness is an adroit, wry set of stories by an author who has an eye for the quirks of human nature.

With a sharp eye for the absurd in the ordinary, Barrett's stories impart gritty and touching realisations about life as it really is. Edgy, sharp and utterly original, Homesickness is an utterly compelling collection and Barrett is meticulous

Colin Barrett is a young man in the town of the short story, but it's fair to say he has the run of the place

Homesickness is another finely crafted collection... Crisply told, fond of an eye-catching flourish... the stories draw energy from the rhythms of west of Ireland small talk, added to Barrett's eye for striking detail...The scenarios are richly layered, with punchy payoffs.

Strange and haunting fiction. You could open Homesickness at any page and find sentences of vim and elegance, ringing dialogue...and similes to savour.

Homesickness presents us with a set of characters forever losing things: other people's dogs, girlfriends, the will to live. But in the course of these stories they find things, too: courage; a crumpled sort of wisdom; the will to live. Between the comedy, and the pure thrill of the language, there's a lot of sorrow and mental illness here, but the afterglow of the stories, which settle and stay with you, is one of moving regard for the flaws and wants we battle, flee, and bargain with every day of our lives

Vivid, punchy... Barrett delineates with verve the ways his characters struggle.

Worth the wait... few do it as well as Colin Barrett.

Barrett's... brilliant second collection confirms him as one of the very best short-story writers in the business.

New Statesman, *The Best Books of 2022 so far*

Barrett's stories are, without exception, beautifully written, full of arresting imagery.

Bittersweet and chiseled...From gritty realism to oddball noir, this assured collection demonstrates the talent of a distinctive writer.

Richly descriptive...This sharply observant collection resists pigeonholing its recalcitrant characters.

A masterwork-by turns hilarious and heart-breaking, these stories shimmer. No story writer at work today thrills me more than Colin Barrett, whose characters feel immediately so familiar and true in their capacity to maim and love. What fierce, tender stories. Totally unforgettable.

Funny, devastating, slow-burning, these understated tales of misfits and misadventures in smalltown Ireland are written with a casual grace.

Eight stories ... written with vim and elegance and more than deliver on the promise of Barrett's acclaimed 2014 debut, Young Skins.

&lsquo;A mesmerisingly powerful book&rsquo; 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 &ndash; 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

The 'mesmerisingly powerful' (Sally Rooney) second book from the author of critical smash Young Skins, winner of the Guardian First Book Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. 
 
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 eight stories, Colin Barrett takes us to the barren backwaters of County Mayo, via Canada, and - with an eye for the abrupt and absurd - illuminates the lives of outcasts, misfits and malcontents. 
 
'One of the best story writers in the English language today' Financial Times 
 
'Superb... There is so much life in these pages' DOUGLAS STUART 
 
'Fierce, tender...unforgettable' BRANDON TAYLOR 
 
'Addictive, stylish and violently funny... Outstanding' KEVIN BARRY

Homesickness

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Colin Barrett

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