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From the author of the wildly acclaimed Night Boat to Tangier, one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2019, stories of rural Ireland in the classic mode: full of love (and sex), melancholy and magic, bedecked in some of the most gorgeous prose being written today.
With three novels and two short story collections published, Kevin Barry has steadily established his stature as one of the finest writers not just in Ireland but in the English language. All of his prodigious gifts of language, character, and setting in these eleven exquisite stories transport the reader to an Ireland both timeless and recognizably modern. Shot through with dark humor and the uncanny power of the primal and unchanging Irish landscape, the stories in That Old Country Music represent some of the finest fiction being written today.
"Barry has the right stuff for short stories. He brings characters to life quickly and then blesses them with his uncanny ear for dialogue and prose rhythms, his compassion and wry wit...Exceptional writing and a thoroughly entertaining collection." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The multi-award-winning Barry dazzles with his word wizardry and the effortless grace of his perfect sentences. Highly recommended." - Library Journal (starred review)
"As always, Barry can't write a bad sentence...but the too-tepid stories don't do justice to the author's considerable talents. This won't go down as one of Barry's finer works." - Publishers Weekly
"I had to quit reading this book the first day I had it in my hands, just so I could have it to read the next day. It's that good." - Richard Ford
This information about That Old Country Music was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: © Olivia Smith
Kevin Barry is the author of the novels Night Boat to Tangier, Beatlebone, and City of Bohane as well as three story collections including That Old Country Music. His stories and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta and elsewhere. He also works as a playwright and screenwriter lives in County Sligo, Ireland.
If you liked That Old Country Music, try these:
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Published 2017
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