Most fiction writers – even those who begin life as poets – write stories, and mostly it is a collection of stories that appears first. I seem to have started at the other end, producing four novels before finally seeing my stories into print.
The stories in this collection stretch back almost to when I began writing fiction, in fact, read consecutively, they can be seen as a history of my pre-occupations - stylistic and thematic.
Most have appeared elsewhere – in particular as part of David Marcus’ excellent Phoenix Irish Short Stories series, and more latterly the Faber Best New Irish Stories.
I would like to pay tribute to the Munster Literature Centre which has championed the short story form with great energy. Their Frank O’Connor Festival, in September every year, is a gathering of the best practitioners and the most enthusiastic enthusiasts from all over the world. With the beautiful city of Cork, food capital of Ireland, as the backdrop, what more could you ask!
CONTENTS
In Xanadu
The bestiary
Surrender
The meanings of wind
The William Walls
Fresher
In the Egyptian collection
Dionysus & the titans
Periastron
What slim boy, O Pyrrha
Dreams
From the Hughes banana
Nero Was An Angler
ISBN: 0863223559 Paperback 192 pages (August 8, 2006)
Publisher: Brandon / Mount Eagle Publications Ltd
Launch
No Paradiso will be launched at The Café Paradiso, Lancaster Quay, Cork on Saturday September 23rd 1600 - 1730, as part of the Frank O’Connor Festival of the Short Story. It will be serialised on the RTÉ radio Book On One Programme, September 18th to the 22nd 2006.