Ever since he burst onto the Irish writing scene over a decade ago, Kevin Barry has entranced readers with his laconic humour, his amiable characters and his impeccable ability to tell stories.
In recent years he’s been getting better and better, with his glorious recent novel Night Boat To Tangier earning him a place on the 2019 Booker longlist.
One year on, Barry returns to his beloved short story form with That Old Country Music, a collection based on some oddly delicious (and sometimes deliciously odd) characters from County Sligo on the Atlantic coast of Ireland.
Each and every one of these stories is irresistibly readable, vividly conjuring mental images of lives and landscapes in such high resolution, you could project them on an Imax screen.