Young Skins

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About this book

Making a remarkable entrance onto the Irish and UK literary scene with rave reviews in The Sunday Timesand The Guardian, Colin Barrett's Young Skinsis a stunning introduction to a singular voice in contemporary fiction. Enter the small, rural town of Glanbeigh, a place whose fate took a downturn with the Celtic Tiger, a desolate spot where buffoonery and tension simmer and erupt, and booze-sodden boredom fills the corners of every pub and nightclub. Here, and in the towns beyond, the young live hard and wear the scars. Amongst them, there's jilted Jimmy, whose best friend Tug is the terror of the town and Jimmy's sole company in his search for the missing Clancy kid; Bat, a lovesick soul with a face like "a bowl of mashed up spuds" even before Nubbin Tansey's boot kicked it in; and Arm, a young and desperate criminal whose destiny is shaped when he and his partner, Dympna, fail to carry out a job. In each story, a local voice delineates the grittiness of Irish society; unforgettable characters whose psychological complexities and unspoken yearnings are rendered through silence, humor, and violence. With power and originality akin to Wells Tower's Everything Ravaged, Everything Burnedand Claire Vaye Watkins' Battlebornthese six short stories and one explosive novella occupy the ghostly, melancholic spaces between boyhood and old age. Told in Barrett's vibrant, distinctive prose, Young Skinsis an accomplished and irreverent debut from a brilliant new writer.

Book Details

ISBN13 9780802123329
ISBN10 0802123325
Series/Work OL19996193W View on OpenLibrary
Publisher Grove Press, Black Cat
Language ENG
Created At January 30, 2025
Updated At January 30, 2025
Last OL update January 18, 2025

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