Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This story was read as part of a review of the Bristol Review of Books Anthology 4. If you want to find out more about this collection then I invite you to pop along to my forethoughts post for this title. I also encourage you to make a trip over to the publisher page for this title.

NB: I apologise in advance for the dreadful photo. Please feel free to download it, print it off, and use it as a deterrent for unwanted house callers.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This story was read as part of a review of the Bristol Review of Books Anthology 4. If you want to find out more about this collection then I invite you to pop along to my forethoughts post for this title. I also encourage you to make a trip over to the publisher page for this title.

The winner of this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was announced last night as Aharon Appelfeld, with his Holocaust novel, Blooms of Darkness (Alma Books); translated from the Hebrew by Jeffrey M. Green.

Appelfeld’s novel, which is based loosely on his own experiences of the Holocaust as a boy, was the overall winner in a shortlist of six titles which included great Italian novelist, Umberto Eco and Yan Lianke’s banned-in-China novel, Dream of Ding Village (Constable and Robinson).

Aharon Appelfeld, who at eighty-years-old becomes the oldest winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, was in London to collect the winner’s cheque of £10,000 which he shares equally with his translator Jeffrey Green. Taking to the podium at the event in the Royal Institute of British Architects, Appelfeld delivered the following statement:

Blooms of Darkness is a work of fiction that includes my personal experience during the Second World War. I wanted to explore the darkest places of human behaviour and to show that even there, generosity and love can survive; that humanity and love can overcome cruelty and brutality. It is a joy to win the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize alongside Jeffrey M Green – he is a highly professional translator and I love his work.

The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize – for which the Booktrust act as custodian – is a UK Prize awarded annually to a work of contemporary fiction in translation by a living author, which has been published during the previous year. The judges for this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize were Boyd Tonkin, (Literary Editor of The Independent), Nick Barley (Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival), Xiaolu Guo (novelist, short story writer and filmmaker), Hephzibah Anderson (broadcaster, freelance critic and feature writer) and Jon Cook (Professor of Literature and Director of the Centre for Creative and Performing Arts at the University of East Anglia; Chair of Arts Council England, East).

On their choice of winner Prize judge, Hephzibah Anderson comments:

Jeffrey M Green’s incantatory translation from the Hebrew does ample justice to a novel that meditates on the imagination, memory and language itself. As the relationship between Hugo and Mariana evolves, this deceptively simple narrative does something extraordinary, carrying the reader to a liminal territory in which deep sensuality exists alongside unfathomable brutality.

For further details, including a brief bio on winning author Aharon Appelfeld, please visit the Booktrust website.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

This story was read as part of a review of the Bristol Review of Books Anthology 4. If you want to find out more about this collection then I invite you to pop along to my forethoughts post for this title. I also encourage you to make a trip over to the publisher page for this title.

If you don’t read Dark Lies the Island then you’ll be missing out on a definitive lesson in the art of short story telling then this is it. This collection will illuminate you.

*****

And so rather reluctantly I’ve come to the end of my journey through Kevin Barry’s new short story collection, Dark Lies the Island (Jonathan Cape), and it’s time to offer up my afterthoughts. If you’ve been following my journey through this collection then I’m sure it’ll come as little surprise to any of you to hear that I loved it.

I said in my forethoughts that although I was excited to be heading into Dark Lies the Island, I was little anxious because I feared, having built such a passion for the short fiction of Kevin Barry over the past couple of years, that my expectations may have been set too high. Fact is, I needn’t have worried because Dark Lies the Island is magnificent. It’s easily as good as Barry’s debut collection There Are Little Kingdoms (The Stinging Fly Press), and in some respects it’s even better.

Before I go on to tell you a little more about my overall impression of Dark Lies the Island, I’d like to present to you a rundown of all of my individual reviews of each story in the collection, with links to each review and ratings. I’ve also provided a brief quote from each individual review, to save you from having to leave this page (I know, I’m all heart and kind consideration ):

• Across the Rooftops – “I loved this story’s subtlety, because it’s more about delicate body language than anything else. I also loved the story’s rooftop setting. Aside from anything else, it made everything feel all the more intimate.” – Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
• Wifey Redux – “I loved, loved, loved loved, loved this story. If you’re a Dad (like me), and you have a teenage daughter (like me – I have 2), then this story will really resonate with you.” – Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
• Fjord of Killary – “Through reading so many of Kevin Barry’s stories I’ve come to learn that he does two things extraordinarily well – characters and dialogue. Both of these ‘super powers’ are clearly evident in this story. It’s an absolute triumph.” – Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
• A Cruelty – “I adore this story even if it is a little sad overall, and my affection for Donie is such that one would think it were a real person who I knew personally. What a most gifted storyteller Barry is.” – Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
• Beer Trip to Llandudno – “Pacy and energy-filled, ‘Beer Trip to Llandudno’ is one of these stories that warms the heart (with its subject matter), and tickles the soul (through its humour). Classic Kevin Barry. “ – Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
• Ernestine and Kit – “Penned with plump descriptions and laced with lashings of humour, ‘Ernestine and Kit’ brings a new and dark activity to the pool of senior pastimes. Brilliant!” – Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
• The Mainland Campaign – “To be honest [this story] didn’t grab me to the same extent as some of Barry’s others have. There are moments of magic (the eclectic flavour of Camden Town is captured beautifully), but overall I found The Mainland Campaign to be a bit flat.” – Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
• Wistful England – “I rather enjoyed this story. It has something of the melancholic mood of a Chekhov tale to it, and as always it’s exquisitely penned.” – Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
• Doctor Sot – “I can’t even begin to describe just how charming I found this story to be. The character of Doctor Sot is warm and endearing (oddly, made all the more so by his mild drunkenness) and his gentlemanly charisma just beams off the page.” – Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
• The Girls and the Dogs – “Barry is renowned for penning manic, drunken-fuelled tales, and The Girls and the Dogs is a prime example. Completely original for all the right reasons this story is madder than a box of frogs and throughly entertaining.” – Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
• White Hitachi – “This is an hilarious tale about two brothers who have little choice but to live on the wrong side of the law. It’s got brilliant characters, there are plenty of laughs, and it’s all held together with razor-sharp dialogue.” – Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
• Dark Lies the Island – “Barry paints a sense of loneliness and vulnerability in the story’s self-harming main character to such an extraordinary depth that he shows in the space of one short story, just how deftly he can turn his pen to the darker and more affecting side of fiction writing.” – Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
• Berlin Arkonaplatz – My Lesbian Summer – “This story is full of sexually depraved characters – Bohemian deviants who seek to shock – but despite being crammed with so many strong personalities it didn’t really appeal to me all that much.” – Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Five star magnificence
You’ll have noticed perhaps that I rated three of the stories in this collection a perfect five, and I do so for good reason. Fjord of Killary is as perfect a short story as I’ve ever read. It’s very much a signature story for Kevin Barry because it embodies all of the qualities and quirks that make him the renowned storyteller that he is. A Cruelty is to be celebrated for its tenderness, as Barry dispenses almost totally with the hilarity, preferring instead to pull at the reader’s heart strings with a tale that’s as emotional as it is charming. And then the humour comes crashing back – albeit in a dark way – in Ernestine and Kit which is a spectacularly entertaining tale about two pensioners who have a very sinister hobby.

And that’s not forget the four stories that were a mere half a mark away from perfect. Wifey Redux which looks at an issue close to every father of a teenage daughter, Doctor Sot in which the reader gets to spend an extraordinary day in the company of a small town alcoholic doctor, and Barry’s brilliant Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award winning story, Beer Trip to Llandudno. All demonstrate just how incredibly adept Barry is as a short story writer.

The stories that didn’t click
Although Barry’s descriptions of Camden Town in The Mainland Campaign are exquisite – he captures the ambiance and ethos of the place brilliantly – I found the story to be blander than perhaps a tale about an IRA terrorist should be. Wistful England while totally infusing the mood of melancholy that Barry so clearly wanted to achieve with this story, just felt like it plodded along. And Berlin Arkonaplatz – My Lesbian Summer? Well, I just found it to be plain weird, and not in a good way.

What’s surprising about all three of the stories I didn’t click with in this collection, is that they’re all, for the most part, set outside of Ireland. Sure, the protagonists in these stories are all Irish, but there’s no glow and warmth of Emerald Isle in any of these stories, and perhaps it’s because Barry is so spectacular (not to mention habitual) in capturing his native land in his prose, that these stories feel somewhat lacking. That said, Barry’s masterpiece Beer Trip to Llandudno features a bunch of Liverpudlians in Wales, which is about as un-Irish as it gets, so maybe I’m just waffling. I do however, just get the overall feeling that Dark Lies the Island as a whole, doesn’t feel as Irish as Barry’s first collection. And whether this is a bad thing or not I’m not quite sure.

Barry’s a Romantic at heart
I’ve discussed my favourite stories in this collection, and the ones which I didn’t connect with quite so well, but before I bring these afterthoughts to a close I want to give specific praise to the titular story of this collection, Dark Lies The Island. This is an incredibly powerful tale about a young girl who is alone and desolate and fighting the demons of self-harming. Now, we all know by now just how brilliant Barry is at writing about the drunken brawls and the hilarity inherent in the marginal characters who populate his stories, but in Dark Lies the Island (the story not the collection, should you be getting confused) Barry shows a certain maturity and depth that I’ve never seen before in his short stories. The sense of anxiety and foreboding in this story is palpable, and it’s made all the more atmospheric through Barry’s extraordinary use of environment and weather. There’s a real Romanticism about Dark Lies the Island, and it’s a joy to engage with it (as an aside you might want to read this piece posted by Kevin Barry on The Stinging Fly website. It clearly demonstrates the more romantique side of Kevin Barry).

A short story collection to treasure
So I think I’ve said all I can say about this collection, and I leave you in the hope that during the course of these afterthoughts (and my individual reviews of the collection) I’ve said enough to convince you to rush out and buy a copy of Dark Lies the Island, because just like There Are Little Kingdoms, this is a story collection worth treasuring. During the course of my campaigning to promote the glory of short stories I come across many people who regularly turn their nose up. They consider short stories to be the most inferior form of literature; a form which has no depth, point or entertainment value. To these people I would eagerly thrust a copy of this collection into their hands, because more than many other short story collections, Dark Lies the Island stands as a perfect example of why the short story is the most glorious of literary forms, and why Kevin Barry is one of the most fresh and exciting short story writers alive on our planet today. Mr. Barry, I salute you!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Jonathan Cape | 5th April 2012 | £12.99 | PAPERBACK | 199 PP | ISBN: 9780224090582

:: What others have said about Dark Lies the Island::

• “[Kevin Barry's] fluid style escorts the reader through a world that is funny, tragic, relentless, endearing and, well, very similar to this one. His profound understanding of western society is married to dialect-heavy prose to produce a startlingly unique voice.” – Henry Krempels, The Sunday Observer.
• “This is exuberant, risk-taking, exhilarating prose. Don’t be put off by its idiosyncrasies; revel in them. Barry’s reputation is growing by the year, and deservedly so. And unless he’s got a Special Bonus edition of Dark Lies The Island stashed away in the Irish midlands, I don’t think I’ll read a better collection this year.” - Valerie O’Riordan, Bookmunch.
• “Throughout, Barry’s language is intense, precise, given to delightful swerves and with pitch perfect dialogue. Unexpected joy is always close: threat is always closer in these superlative stories.” – The Scotsman.

However, the story does have a redeeming quality, in the rather odd relationship between the protagonist Patrick and the photographer, Silvija. It’s a strength and supreme confidence of an older lesbian woman vs the young, heterosexual wet-behind-the-ears male writer kind of relationship, and in its depraved way it’s kind of endearing. One would consider this to be a difficult match for Barry to put together, yet he succeeds making the story much more readable than it is shocking.

All in all a story worth reading – if one is not easily offended – but I question whether it really has a place in this collection.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

This story was read as part of a review of Kevin Barry’s latest short story collection, Dark Lies the Island. If you want to find out more about the book, or you want to read other reviews from this collection, then I invite you to pop along to my forethoughts post for this title. I also invite you to take a trip over to the publisher page for this title.

From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjón; translated by Victoria Cribb
(Telegram Books)

Speaking of this year’s winner, chair of the Shadow IFFP Jury Stuart Allen, had the following to say:

All of us [the judges] felt entranced by the writing and by Sjón’s voice. Through Jonas’ eyes, the writer captured 17th-century Iceland so well, and this was helped by Victoria Cribb’s translation which, through its usage of archaic vocabulary and grammatical forms, gave it the feel of a book that had just been unearthed, not written.

I concur, From the Mouth of the Whale is a delightful novel. It may take some getting into at first, but once one is engaged with it one finds oneself transported to a truly magical world; one that becomes seared in the reader’s memory. A worthy winner indeed, and one for which the translator should be equally applauded.

To recap, the judges for this year’s inaugural ‘Shadow’ Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, were Stuart Allen (Winstonsdad Dad), Lisa Hill (ANZ Litlovers), Simon Quicke (Inside Books), Gary Moon (The Parrish Lantern), Mark Staniforth (Eleutherophobia) and Robert Burdock (RobAroundBooks).

Remember, the official winner is announced tomorrow so if you’re keen to know the result as soon as it becomes available, then be sure to keep a close eye on the #iffp hashtag on Twitter, and on the Booktrust website.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

This story was read as part of a review of the Bristol Review of Books Anthology 4. If you want to find out more about this collection then I invite you to pop along to my forethoughts post for this title. I also encourage you to make a trip over to the publisher page for this title.

Barry paints a sense of loneliness and vulnerability in the story’s self-harming main character to such an extraordinary depth (he amplifies the mood magnificently through the surroundings and the weather), that he shows in the space of one short story, just how deftly he can turn his pen to the darker and more affecting side of fiction writing.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This story was read as part of a review of Kevin Barry’s latest short story collection, Dark Lies the Island. If you want to find out more about the book, or you want to read other reviews from this collection, then I invite you to pop along to my forethoughts post for this title. I also invite you to take a trip over to the publisher page for this title.