Name: Short Stories by Liz McSkeane - What to Put in a Suitcase
SKU: 2266
Price: 14.00 EUR
Availability: InStock

Short Stories by Liz McSkeane – What to Put in a Suitcase

€14.00

ISBN 978-1-913598-37-2 Release date October 5th, 2022

Now available for pre-order

These sixteen stories from an award-winning fiction writer and poet follow a cast of characters destined to navigate a world that is by turns perplexing, intriguing, threatening. What to Put in a Suitcase evokes a rich variety of people and situations: a suburban dinner party whose hosts harbour a troubling secret; a childhood prank in 1940s Dublin with tragic consequences that reverberate through the decades; the sinister challenge of walking along a deserted corridor; a family fleeing environmental disaster in Dublin of the near future; a passionate defence of personal space, even if only in the local café.

Read one of the stories, Lebensraum in Books Ireland Magazine now.

“The world of What to Put in a Suitcase is a very uncertain place, full of uncomfortable questions. We are frequently unsure where we are, the terrain shifts, the ground beneath our feet feels increasingly unstable. These are stories written in spare, pared-back language, with images that startle, packed with interior monologues that are rich with insight and observation and reflect the challenges of modern life: immigration, the pandemic, violence against women, society’s many inequalities.”

Catherine Dunne

Description

Engaged with both the minutiae of thought processes and the impulse to action, these stories grapple with the twists and turns of individual psychology and personal relationships. Wider themes of justice and the place of the individual in the political and social context of the modern world are never far from the surface, at times, when least expected, seasoned with a sly humour. An intriguing and compelling collection. Read one of the stories from Suitcase, A Hot Coffee, published in the Irish Times Online on Christmas Day.

“In the hands of Liz McSkeane, the everyday ‒ a café terrace, a deserted corridor, an oriental rug, an airport lounge ‒ can be abruptly transformed into a site of conflict and menace. Always meticulous in her choice of language, these stories show her skill in evoking our primal emotions.”

David Butler

“This is a brilliant, incisive collection of contemporary short stories, startling and unsettling in their profound reflections on the complexities of modern life.”

Lisa Harding