The ’mesmerisingly powerful’ (Sally Rooney) second book from the author of critical smash Young Skins, winner of the Guardian First Book Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.

A quiet night in the neighbourhood pub is shattered by the arrival of a sword-wielding fugitive. A funeral party teeters on the edge of this world and the next, as ghosts won’t settle. A shooting sees an everyday call-out lead a policewoman to confront the banality of her own existence. In eight stories, Colin Barrett takes us to the barren backwaters of County Mayo, via Canada, and - with an eye for the abrupt and absurd - illuminates the lives of outcasts, misfits and malcontents.

’One of the best story writers in the English language today’ Financial Times

’Superb... There is so much life in these pages’ DOUGLAS STUART

’Fierce, tender...unforgettable’ BRANDON TAYLOR

’Addictive, stylish and violently funny... Outstanding’ KEVIN BARRY