The Boatman and Other Stories
BILLY O’CALLAGHAN
(Jonathan Cape, 240 PP, £14.99)
Tablet bookshop price £13.49 • Tel 020 7799 4064
Short stories have always been a particularly strong and vital part of the Irish literary tradition, and this new collection, by Billy O’Callaghan – his fourth – is a shining example of how the restraint the form requires can distil and intensify a writer’s gifts. His first came out in 2008, since when he has been steadily published in little magazines, won an award or two (including a Costa shortlisting in 2016 for the story that gives this new collection its name) and built a quietly growing reputation. Then last year his second novel, My Coney Island Baby, brought him wider and louder acclaim. Now these 12 stories confirm his delicate craftsmanship, unflashy narrative and descriptive skill, and his deep understanding of powerful and universal emotions.
He has never tried to conceal the autobiographical roots of his writing. Born into a large family in County Cork, where he still lives, where money was short and life was hard, he learned about grief early after a brother died in infancy, and the devastation of loss and death, especially the death of a child, haunts these pages.
