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In her first novel, Hezada, I Miss You, Erin Pringle picks up on themes explored in her two short story collections, in particular the second book, The Whole World at Once, and investigates them in a more sustained and thoughtful manner. A small town in the American Midwest struggles to survive. Half the stores in … Continue reading
The Whole World at Once is Erin Pringle’s second collection of short stories (her first, The Floating Order, is reviewed here) and the wait has been well worth it. While The Floating Order was a finely tuned macabre look at an often incomprehensible adult world mostly through the skewed perspective of children, this new collection … Continue reading
Selected Stories, due out soon from Swan River Press, brings together a number of stories by Mark Valentine that share related themes and a very particular style of approach reminiscent of the work of several writers working in the early 20th Century. While most stories don’t specify a year in which they take place, references … Continue reading
Oscar and Lucinda was the first of several novels I’ve read by Peter Carey and it’s still my favourite of his books. It tells the story of clergyman Oscar Hopkins and heiress Lucinda Leplastrier, both addicted gamblers of opposing type: one obsessive, one compulsive, both necessarily secretive, both bound by the strictures of mid-19th Century … Continue reading
Perhaps better known as a poet, having published three collections of poetry in the last few years, and as MC of the monthly North Beach Poetry Nights in the Crane Bar, Galway, John Walsh is also a writer of short stories, and Border Lines, recently published by Doire Press, presents an excellent sampling of what … Continue reading
Longsword tells the story of William Longespée, the illegitimate son of King Henry II, who was married by his half-brother, then King Richard I, into the family of Salisbury, becoming the Earl of Salisbury. Published in 1762, this new edition from Swan River Press is its first appearance in print in over 30 years and … Continue reading
Old Albert charts the history of Larkhill House from circa 1840 to the 1920s, with a coda that brings the story up to the present day, and apart from one chapter that digresses to Ireland’s Eye, is set in Larkhill and its Rathmines environs. Larkhill House is a real place, as is St. Mary’s Church, … Continue reading
There is the danger that a casual perusal of the contents page of Carole Lanham’s collection The Whisper Jar may give the potential reader the impression that this is a work of whimsy, but nothing could be further from the truth. There is certainly an element of whimsy sown into some of the stories, but … Continue reading
The wonder of The Floating Order, a collection of short stories by Erin Pringle, is that it is impossible to pigeonhole. At their heart the stories have a darkly fantastic edge, but this aspect is more often than not a component of the character’s view of the outside world. Skewed perspectives dominate, particularly in the … Continue reading
Strange Epiphanies, from Swan River Press, is a collection of short stories by Peter Bell. Swan River Press specialises in horror fiction of the macabre and supernatural tale variety, taking its cue from the work of writers such as Sheridan Le Fanu, Arthur Machen, M.R. James and others. The emphasis is very much on a … Continue reading
John Kenny 