Graveyard Clay

Máirtín Ó Cadhain (1906–1970) is widely acknowledged as one of the most significant writers in the Irish language and a giant among twentieth-century authors. Liam Mac Con Iomaire is a lecturer, broadcaster, translator, and biographer. He lives in Dublin, Ireland. Tim Robinson is a writer, artist, and cartographer. He lives in Roundstone, Ireland.

“[This] translation . . . is remarkably elegant.”—William Brennan, New Yorker“A cause for celebration.”—Jan Gardner, Boston Globe“Whatever their differences in tempo or phraseology, each of the current versions of Ó Cadhain’s most famous book is gloriously attuned to the energy, copiousness, invective and ribaldry of the original Cré na Cille.”—Patricia Craig, Times Literary Supplement“Wonderfully capture the surrealism and claustrophobia and jet-black humour of the original.”—Robert McMillen, Irish News“A delightfully silly jaunt with a comic reach way beyond that growling, windy plot of land in the west . . . sparking renewed curiosity about the linguistic ingenuity of its author.”—Valerie Shanley, Irish Mail on Sunday“If Graveyard Clay is a masterfully faithful version of its original, it is also a rollicking recreation of a comic classic and a damn good read. . . . Ó Cadhain has been nobly served by his translators.”—Philip O’Leary, Dublin Review of Books“Ó Cadhain’s linguistic tour de force has been very well served in this meticulous translation. It will be deeply satisfying for readers familiar with the original and will be of huge value to those struggling linguistically to access it. . . . An invaluable addition to Ó  Cadhain scholarship. . . . Like the best of translation, we can expect it to stimulate an ongoing dialogue with the original and to ensure the place of Cré na Cille in the wider multilingual field of comparative literary studies.”—Mairin Nic Eoin, Irish Times“Máirtín Ó Cadhain’s epic novel Cré na Cille finds voice in an equally epic translation by Liam Mac Con Iomaire and Tim Robinson. A book to be cherished for centuries.”—Colum McCann, Irish IndependentLiam Mac Con Iomaire and Tim Robinson are winners of the Modern Language Association’s tenth Lois Roth Award for translation of a literary work“A remarkable collaboration between two translators operating on the cusp between Irish and Hiberno-English, Graveyard Clay is true to the many different registers of Ó Cadhain’s masterpiece. It is a version in which imaginative audacity is tempered only by sound textual scruple.”—Declan Kiberd