by Donal Ryan
First published 2015
In a landscape where survival hangs by thin threads, ordinary people confront extraordinary moments that define their existence. A burglar trembles before an old man's gaze. A priest teaches hurling in a war-ravaged Syrian town. A grieving mother connects with the driver who killed her daughter. Friends assemble to seek brutal revenge for a rape. Each story pulses with the raw electricity of human desperation—where violence and tenderness exist in fragile balance. These interconnected narratives reveal how a single moment can shatter or reshape a life, tracing the delicate lines between survival and destruction in contemporary rural Ireland.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: interconnected-narratives, ordinary-people-in-extraordinary-moments
Setting: Ireland
Period: 21st century
208 pages · Paperback · Steerforth
Content warnings: violence