Colin Barrett – författare

WINNER OF THE 2014 GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD'One of the best books of the past decade... The characters are edgy, often violent, locked into a world described in ways that are both harsh and tender. . . Adds a sense of myth, even a spiritual aura, to the narrative that lifts the meanness of the circumstances into some other realm' Colm Tóibín, Washington Post *Winner of the 2014 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award*Winner of the 2014 Rooney Prize for Irish LiteratureThis magnificent collection takes us to Glanbeigh, a small town in rural Ireland - a town in which the youth have the run of the place. Boy racers speed down the back lanes; couples haunt the midnight woods; young skins huddle in the cold once The Peacock has closed its doors. Here the young live hard and wear the scars. It matters whose sister you were seen with. If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, it matters a very great deal.Colin Barrett's debut does not take us to Glanbeigh alone; there are other towns, and older characters. But each story is defined by a youth lived in a crucible of menace and desire - and each crackles with the uniform energy and force that distinguish this terrific collection.

**LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024****WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARDS DEBUT FICTION AWARD 2024**‘Beautiful…brings to life an entire world’ SALLY ROONEY‘Sublime… A thrillingly moreish novel’ SUNDAY TIMES*It’s the biggest weekend of the year and everything is about to change – the thrilling debut novel from the prize-winning author.In Ballina, the simmering feud between small-time drug-dealer Cillian English and County Mayo’s enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum. Soon the reclusive Dev and Cillian’s teenage brother Doll are drawn headlong into the Ferdias’ revenge fantasy. Meanwhile, Doll’s girlfriend Nicky sets out on a feverish mission to save him.Life in this ordinary town will never be the same again…AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST SHORTLISTED FOR IRISH BOOK AWARDS NOVEL OF THE YEARLONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2025*‘A whole world is captured for the reader’ COLM TÓIBÍN‘As sharp, funny and bitingly bittersweet as life’ BOOKER JUDGES, 2024‘A gift of true storytelling’ ANNE ENRIGHT‘A heartbreaker of a debut’ NEW YORK TIMES**A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE GUARDIAN, OBSERVER AND DAZED DIGITAL**

Back in 1983 I was chatting with Dick Coleman, publisher of Traffic World magazine, when he unexpectedly proposed that I write a column for the magazine on computer applications in the transportation/physical distribution industry. "But, Dick, I don't know all that much about computers," I protested. "You use one, don't you?" he asked logically. Yes, I did; I'd been running my consulting business with it for two years. But that didn't, I explained, make me an expert. "Think about it," he said. That's typical Coleman; he drops these studiedly casual ideas and just lets them lay there until you pick them up and wind up doing just what he wanted you to do all along. Sure enough, the longer I pondered the notion the more it appealed to me. OK, I wasn't a computer expert (I'm still not). But I was a computer user, in the transportation/distribution field; maybe from that perspective I might have some useful things to say to other transportation/distribution users and would-be users of computers. Thus was born the "Computer Software for Transportation" column. The first one appeared in the April 11, 1983, issue of Traffic World, and it's been a once-a-month schedule ever since. And thus, too, was ultimately born this book.

In the time-worn traditions of the transportation industry, ship­ pers and carriers regard one another as enemies. There is, to be sure, a certain degree of validity to such a viewpoint. An element of conflict will naturally be present in any vendor-purchaser relationship. The two, after all, are seeking distinctly different things from that relationship; and to a con­ siderable extent each party's success in realizing its own goals must be achieved at the expense of the other. At the same time, however, viewing that relationship as strictly zero-sum-a gain by one side always resulting in an equal and offsetting loss by the other-is a gross misconception. It overlooks the key reality that, no matter which party comes closest to its own objectives, the relationship, and the business transactions that flow from it, must ultimately benefit both. Without that level of mutual benefit the relationship will simply not exist (or will soon founder if it somehow does come into being); for it is only the self-interest of the two parties that impels them to establish and continue that relationship at all. In transportation, however, this element of mutuality-the attitude that the parties share a common interest in nurturing their relationship-is often forgotten. Instead of working to­ gether as, fundamentally, partners in a business transaction from which both expect to derive gains, they dedicate the bulk of their energies to fighting, rather than cooperating, with one another.

‘A mesmerisingly powerful book’ SALLY ROONEYIlluminating the lives of outcasts, misfits and malcontents, this is the darkly funny and moving second book from the award-winning author of Young Skins.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 his new collection of stories, Colin Barrett takes us to the barren backwaters of County Mayo, via Canada – always with an eye for the abrupt and absurd.'Superb... There is so much life in these pages' DOUGLAS STUART'Fierce, tender...unforgettable' BRANDON TAYLOR'Addictive, stylish and violently funny... Outstanding' KEVIN BARRY

**LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024****WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION 2024**‘Beautiful…brings to life an entire world’ SALLY ROONEY‘Sublime… A thrillingly moreish novel’ SUNDAY TIMESIt’s the biggest weekend of the year and everything is about to change…In Ballina, the simmering feud between small-time drug-dealer Cillian English and County Mayo’s enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum. Soon the reclusive Dev and Cillian’s teenage brother Doll are drawn headlong into the Ferdias’ revenge fantasy. Meanwhile, Doll’s girlfriend Nicky sets out on a feverish mission to save him.Life in this ordinary town will never be the same again…AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELISTSHORTLISTED FOR IRISH BOOK AWARDS NOVEL OF THE YEARLONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2025‘A whole world is captured for the reader’ Colm Tóibín‘As sharp, funny and bitingly bittersweet as life’ Booker Judges, 2024‘A gift of true storytelling’ Anne Enright‘A heartbreaker of a debut’ New York Times