This week we bring you Bird in the Snow by Michael Harding from the not-so-dusty shelves of our archive! The Sunday Business Post called it ‘a powerful, dramatic read,’ while Books Ireland called Harding’s writing ‘supple and utterly modern.’ Set over the course of 24 hours in the life of Birdie Waters – a woman who has just buried her troubled son – the book is a journey through the memories of an old woman in rural Ireland, and it is delicately and affectingly handled by Harding. It’s a quiet, moving book that suits the end of winter and the start of the early evenings quite perfectly. It’s on sale for the special price of €10.00 this week for being our archive…
Aidan Mathews’ latest short story collection, Charlie Chaplin’s Wishbone and Other Stories, really has something for everyone. The author displays his flair for delving into the minds of an eclectic group of characters – from ‘A Woman from Walkinstown‘, musing on the decline of her name, Mary, to the teenage girl spending a Saturday afternoon with her separated father. Decades pass within its pages – the imprisonment of Anton Artaud in 1937 gives way to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, while stories set in our time make substantial appearances. In light of this impressive range, we pick Aidan’s brains about the nature of form, the helping hands of Puffin paperbacks, and the short story masters you should…