Barnacle Soup and Other Stories from the West of Ireland - Tapa dura

"Reading Barnacle Soup, I was seized with the delightful and simultaneous impulse to clutch this book tightly to my chest, and yet also to share it with everyone I know. I'm so grateful to Josie Gray and Tess Gallagher for these intensely place-based stories of brightburning souls." Rick Bass -- Rick Bass "blurb"

Ireland is known throughout the world for its rich and vibrant storytelling. Josie Gray is a proud inheritor of this tradition, a yarn-spinner whose evocative and authentic stories are steeped in the rural west of Ireland community to which he belongs.

Beautifully crafted, subtly paced, and richly textured, Gray's stories vividly and affectionately bring to life a disparate castoff characters and recreate the fabric of their everyday lives. Disputes, laughter, courting, death, drink and general all-round skullduggery are the other of the day as Gray skillfully weaves together myth and fact, truth and near-truth.

Captivated by these tales, acclaimed poet Tess Gallagher worked with Gray to give his oral stories written form. The result is a stunning collection that preserves the intimacy, melody and rhythm of Gray's voice.

Beautifully illustrated with specially commissioned linocuts, Barnacle Soup is a lyrical feast for all those who love hearing and reading stories.