Being Various: New Irish Short Stories, edited

Following her own acclaimed short-story collection, Multitudes, Lucy Caldwell guest-edits the sixth volume of Faber's long-running series of all new Irish short stories, continuing the work of the late David Marcus and subsequent guest editors, Joseph O'Connor, Kevin Barry and Deirdre Madden. Featuring brand new short stories from Kevin Barry, Eimear McBride, Jan Carson, Belinda McKeon, Lisa McInerney, Danielle McLaughlin, Stuart Neville, Sally Rooney, Kit de Waal, Paul McVeigh and many more, these tales features everything from crime fiction to young adult, magical realism and new modernism. We get a man internet dating in a direct provision hostel, a country where the babies are all replaced by letters, a lesbian with a Muslim girlfriend going home to a Belfast family that is 'more complicated than Peshawar'. Irish life is flown at from many angles. The anthology ends up being two-thirds female, one-third Northern, two-thirds born in Ireland, two-thirds currently resident - a mix that's never going to be all-encompassing but still feels representative of the Ireland of today.

Submitted by Pete