Granta 135: New Irish Writing - Couverture souple

'The always interesting, often intriguing and at times tantalising Granta magazine inhabits a space it has made its own: a literary journal possessing the confidence and substance of a book' -- Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

'[Kevin Barry's] affectionately engaging portrayal [...] should do wonders for Cork tourism as Granta readers lap it up. Lucy Caldwell has a touching short story of love and longing in the wee North, and memories stirred into reverie by a Belfast Marriage Equality march... Granta magazine has dusted down the Irish shop window and put on a captivating display of native talent' -- Paddy Kehoe, RTÉ Ten

'[Kevin Barry's] essay is so evocative of place, so funny and so shrewdly observed that I could fill this review by quoting from it, and Lucy Caldwell's Belfast-set 'Here We Are' is just as evocative, while telling a coming-of-age story that's suffused with real tenderness and poignancy. 'Mr Salary' by Sally Rooney (who's working on her first novel) has a similarly wistful sense of transience in its tale of an unusual transatlantic relationship that mingles deep friendship and suppressed desire; while John Connell's 'The Birds of June', which concerns a nurse who works in a rural home for the elderly, shows that there's still a place in Irish writing for the old fashioned well-crafted tale if it's done as well as it is here' -- John Boland, Irish Independent

'What a treat this collection is, featuring up-and-comers as well as established Irish talent... Belfast writer Lucy Caldwell's tale of 'forbidden love' between two girls is one of the standout stories... Colin Barett's trademark rough lyrical magic is to the fore in his tale of Dev Handrick... The contributions from Co Down poet Leontia Flynn, Belinda McKeown, Kevin Barry and John Connell are yet more highlights in a sterline collection, while the photographs by Doug DuBois, Birte Kaufmann, Stephen Dock and Eamonn Doyle are uniformly stunning.' --Brian Campbell, Irish News

Granta 135 is a snapshot of contemporary Ireland, which shows where one of the world's most distinguished and independent literary traditions is today. Here international stars rub shoulders with a new generation of talent from a country which keeps producing exceptional writers.
This issue features Kevin Barry on Cork, 'as intimate and homicidal as a little Marseille'; Lucy Caldwell imagining forbidden first love in Belfast; an exclusive extract of Colm Toibin's next novel, about growing up in the shadow of a famous father; fiction from Emma Donaghue about Victorian Ireland's miraculous fasting girls; and Sara Baume describing the wild allure and threat of the rural landscape.
Also featuring fiction from Colin Barrett, John Connell, Mary O'Donoghue, Roddy Doyle, Siobhan Mannion, Belinda McKeon, Sally Rooney, Donal Ryan and William Wall; poetry from Tara Bergin, Leontia Flynn and Stephen Sexton; photography by Doug DuBois, Stephen Dock and Birte Kaufmann; with original portraits of the authors in their environment by acclaimed street photographer Eamonn Doyle."