The Boatman and Other Stories

March 1, 2020
This collection of 12 taut, lyrical short stories by Irish author O'Callaghan (My Coney Island Baby, 2019) explores the choices of characters at the limits of emotional and physical extremes, sometimes in the present and sometimes in the mid- to late-twentieth century. In the few pages of The Border Fox, a teenage IRA recruit is wounded in a border crossing, kills a man, and falls in love with a girl lustrous and wild as the raw and terrible beauty of nature at full stretch. The title story, quieter but no less moving, observes the impact of grief on a young father who has lost both his daughter and his own father. The longer, grimly touching Beginish traces the inexorable consequences of a young couple's lighthearted decision to spend a month on a deserted island. O'Callaghan's affection for the harsh landscape of Ireland is as strong as his knowledge of his flawed and emotionally driven characters, to the point that they seem to grow inevitably out of that misty, unforgiving place.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)