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These Are Our Lives
Stories
Edited by Declan Meade
A bang-up-to-the-minute anthology of twenty-two new short stories from
Irish and international authors, with David Albahari, Claire Keegan,
Toby Litt, Martin Malone and Philip Ó Ceallaigh alongside a host of
the finest new writing talent. Features 'Party at Helen's' by Kevin
Barry, 'The Complicated Architect' by Ronan Doyle, winner of the
inaugural Stinging Fly Prize and a story from Kathleen Murray, winner
of the 2006 Fish International Short Story Prize.
Publication Date: 5thJuly 2006.
Available in all good bookstores nationwide.
(Trade enquiries to Columba Mercier Distribution (CMD), Tel: (01)
2942560, Fax: 2942564, E-mail: cmd@columba.ie)
It can also be ordered below at the same price as off-the-shelf. (Delivery is free.) Pay by PayPal or use our bank details at the bottom of the page.
(Issue 4 Volume Two, Summer 2006)
| Paperback €12.00 (about $15) ISBN: 0-9550152-2-7
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We have recently added a photo page of images taken on the day of the launch. Happy memories!
Dublin's Metro newspaper gave it a four star review and named it their Book of the Week:
'a handsomely designed book that is in no way let down by its content. Opening story, Kevin Barry's 'Party at Helen's', is a deftly-handled tale of a colourful group of revellers at a Galway house party, which tempers a certain youthful disillusion with a masterly sense of the comic, describing the Roscommon accent Barry writes: 'It was designed for roaring over chainsaws and slurring ballads to the fallen martyrs of Irish republicanism.' In Claire Keegan's poignant 'Dark Horses' a middle-aged farmer mourns the loss of a lover, driven away by her partner's stubborn pride. Keegan's elegiac tale with careful attention to the Hiberno-English brogue has all the hallmarks of John McGahern. [T]here is nothing at all parochial about this wide-ranging anthology. David Albahari's 'Holding Hands', translated from the Serbian, is a delicate and subtle account of marital distrust in which the narrator suspects his wife of courting an Iraqi exile. And while one or two of these stories don't quite hit the mark, most have a freshness, urgency and lightness of touch that suggests the future of the Irish short story is looking particularly rosy.' - Daragh Reddin
VILLAGE magazine took note of the origins of the title and finished:
. . . elegant, attractively packaged collection . . . Featuring 22 new short stories for €12, it offers superior value and grittier, more modern fare than Picador's recently published Shots collection. - Ronan Browne
The Irish Times of July 15th gave an extensive review: Read it in full
It is a celebration of new voices in fiction, sprinkled, too, with some more established names. . . .
Traditionally fiction promised its readers knowledge - of people and places, of lives not their own. Perhaps that kind of knowledge was never really attainable, such understanding always just maddeningly beyond our grasp. Now, of course, when all aspects of life appear to be reducible to a category or a specific group, stories that play with the possibility of such knowledge challenge our conception of the status quo. These stories, which revel in mood and atmosphere, do precisely that, offering us images and depictions of the way we live now. Because of this, the aptly named These Are Our Lives is a collection worth having. - Derek Hand
The Examiner of August 5th also gave a full-length review, concluding:
Most collections are uneven in content: usually, a couple of very
good pieces, the bulk moderate, and perhaps a few very weak stories.
The present volume is not like that, however. The short fictions are
uniformly good, the writing taut and to the
point... These are stories engrained in the Celtic Tiger... as up to
date as an SSIA... Impossible to mention all the stories, but a word
for The Stinging Fly people for such a riveting collection.
- Vincent Banville
Writer and critic Laura Hird maintains one of the UK's best-known websites on new writing. Marc Goldin took a look at the anthology, and closes with some general remarks on The Stinging Fly magazine. It's been several months since the book was launched, but we expect this won't be the last attention it receives. Read it in full
This is an excellent group of stories and the level and quality of writing is stellar. Other equally talented writers included are, Antonia Hart, Philip O Ceallaigh, Roisin McDermott, David Albahari, Kevin Power, Martin Malone, Maria Behan, Toby Litt, Mick Rainsford and Kathleen Murray. Declan Meade has done a superb editing job in both selecting the stories themselves and their placement. They flow seamlessly, one to the next as the book fairly reads itself.
Something has to be said for longevity -- the first issue appeared in 1998 and here, looking down the barrel at 2007 approaching, 'The Stinging Fly' is still doing it and doing it well. There is a lot of dodgy work these days that passes for what's called 'new writing' but Meade and 'The Fly' have found only the best and continue to do so.
I think that Meade and 'The Stinging Fly' have succeeded and admirably.
- Marc Goldin at Laura Hird's website
Contributors
David Albahari, Kevin Barry, Maria Behan, Jennifer Brady, David Butler, Maile Chapman, Ronan Doyle, Antonia Hart, Claire Keegan, David Lewis, Toby Litt,
Roisin McDermott, Martin Malone, Kathleen Murray, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Philip Ó Ceallaigh, Mary O'Donoghue, Aiden O'Reilly, Colin O'Sullivan, Kevin Power,
Mick Rainsford and John Saul.
Cover illustration & design: Fergal Condon
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