“If Roddy Doyle and Nick Cave could procreate, the result would be something like Kevin Barry,” according to one critic. The Limerick-born author exploded onto the international literary scene with his firecracker collection of short stories, There are Little Kingdoms, in 2007, and soon became a regular contributor to The New Yorker.
Kevin Barry is our guest for the GLAS Hour this week.
How to join us
Friday 8 May 2020, 20:00 CEST
You can join the event by clicking the link below before the event begins. It will enable you to download and install the Zoom application, which you can also use to submit questions to the author.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83652747785We will also stream the event live on our Facebook page.
About Kevin Barry
Kevin Barry’s amazing debut novel, City of Bohane (2011) won the world’s richest literary prize, the International Impac Dublin Literary Award, €100,000. The prize jury included Salim Bachi, Krista Kaer, Patrick McCabe, Kamila Shamsee, Clive Sinclair and Eugene R. Sullivan. This was followed by the short story collection Dark Lies the Island (2012) which has inspired a film.
His reconstruction of a fictional trip by John Lennon to the island he bought in Clew Bay, Co. Mayo, was the subject of Beatlebone (2015) which won the Goldsmith’s Prize for fiction that breaks the mould. His latest novel, Night Boat to Tangier, has been greeted with widespread critical acclaim, “brilliantly funny and terrifying at once” says Tessa Hadley.
The critical acclaim is a good thing because Kevin Barry has described himself as “a raving egomaniac” but “hugely insecure and desperate to be loved and I want my reader to adore me, to a disturbing, stalkerish degree.”
Kevin is a brilliant reader of his own work and viewers on Friday will get an exclusive extract from his new collection of short stories due out later this year.
What the critics said about Night Boat to Tangier
“Visionary…What distinguishes this book beyond its humour, terror and beauty of description is its moral perception” – The Guardian
“If prose were gold and diamonds there’d be thousands of hell-bent prospectors heading for the Black Hills of Kevin Barry’s glistening, sparkling novel” – Sebastian Barry
“Brilliantly funny and terrifying at once.” – Tessa Hadley
“A bloody mighty novel.” – Lisa McInerney
A word on the GLAS Hour
It is very encouraging to read the feedback resulting from last week’s conversation with Colm Tóibín. One welcome aspect of these lockdown sessions is that we are connecting with GLAS supporters who have moved to other parts of the globe but have not had the heart to unsubscribe from our mailing list!
We are also getting new followers thanks to those of you who are sharing event details with friends and colleagues, please keep doing so!
These events are free but we would ask those who can afford it to make a donation, however small, to the Edith Wilkins Foundation for Street Children in Darjeeling where the kids and staff are under lockdown and life has become just that bit more difficult. Bank details are below.
IBAN: IE48 AIBK 9343 4821 4390 06
BIC: AIB KIE 2D
Account number: 21439006