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That Old Country Music

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That Old Country Music

By: Kevin Barry
Narrated by: Kevin Barry
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About this listen

Since his landmark debut collection, There Are Little Kingdoms, and his award-winning second book, Dark Lies the Island, Kevin Barry has been acclaimed as one of the world's most accomplished and gifted short-story writers.

In this third collection, That Old Country Music, we encounter a ragbag of West of Ireland characters, many on the cusp between love and catastrophe, heartbreak and epiphany, resignation and hope. These stories show an Ireland in a condition of great flux but also as a place where older rhythms, and an older magic, somehow persist.

Barry's lyric intensity, the vitality of his comedy and the darkness of his vision recall the work of masters of the genre like Flannery O'Connor and William Trevor, but he has forged a style which is patently his own.

©2020 Kevin Barry (P)2020 Canongate Books Ltd Anthologies & Short Stories Fiction Short Stories Heartfelt Scary

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This a wonderful collection of short stories. Laugh out loud at times but also poignant. The author reading it made it a thoroughly enjoyable listen. Thank you Mr Barry

Captivating

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This is Kevin Barry's third collection of short stories and it does not disappoint. The tales of disparate characters in and from the west of Ireland are complemented by Barry's masterly narration which brings them to life. Outstanding.

Another Superb Collection

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I’m back in Ireland when I read this book. Back to the country life I grew up in, pre internet, when we sat in the kitchen and chatted. And the closeness we had then to nature, the fields, simple enough pleasures, and to the rituals of births, deaths and marriages. Kevin Barry puts it all into words. With humour, insight, Immense understanding of human nature and just beautiful writing. I will read and re-read. Or listen. So much better when he reads. I especially loved the story Who’s Dead McCarthy.

Best irish writer ever

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Another tremendous collection from Barry. It just flies out of the traps with The Coast of Leitrim, and never lets up. For me, that short story alongside St Catherine’s, Roma Kid and Who’s Dead McCarthy are actually some of the finest short stories set down on paper (or digital bytes). Always Barry is a great reader of his work, particularly the grains of humour.

Captivating

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Beautifully crafted and read by Kevin Barry. An actor too, a man of many talents. Numerous memorable lines, among them “She had a face on her like a scorched budgie. She detested herself”. Loved it.

Poetry. Dark, beautiful and often hilarious.

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Another excellent collection of short stories. There’s a more maudlin edge to this lot though. Less dark, more a general sadness. Lots of longing for a lost love, and previous feelings. I suspect the author will be divorced within the year. That or renewed his vows.

Superb

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That lad has a mastery of language and never fails to delight, characters are fully formed even in the short story form

great collection of stories

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Emotive with Laugh out loud moments. Wonderful narration. Conveys spirit of the landscapes and people.

captivating in the ordinary

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Excellent book, beautifully read by the author. Want to go back to Leitrim and Sligo now.

Excellent

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Kevin Barry is some boy. It's a terrific good sign when you're only a quarter way through a book and you already know "I'm going to read this / listen to this again." Over and over he gives us a phrase or an image which you want to go back and chew over, often mysterious, often dark, sometimes lyrical.

He has opened up a vein (take that in as many senses as it will hold) dealing with characters at the margins of Irish society, some them eejits or recluses or pitiable immigrants and the whole time the landscapes of Leitrim, Roscommon and Galway brood and breathe under the prose. Except for one set in Spain. Small towns are lights in the distance, a 24 hour garage shop visited after midnight. Wind, cloud, the cawing of rooks, yellow gorse, fence wire streaked with sheep's wool, the colour of the sea changing 8000 times every hour at Inishbofin. And it's not just colour. There is genuine emotional weight and consequence in the stories. If that sort of thing sounds interesting to you, go for it.

Barry's reading of his own work is a considerable performance. He confides rather than declaiming and the intimate tone is compelling. The occasional swearing which might have seemed gauche on the printed page has a convincing naturalness in audio.

Some boy

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