In White Ink
By: Elske Rahill
Publication Date: October 2017
€9.00
Elske Rahill short stories In White Ink. Link for Purchase: http://headofzeus.com/book/white-ink-2
Motherhood, nurture and violence – these are the themes of Elske Rahill’s remarkable first collection, In White Ink. Rahill brings to life the psychological and physical reality of mothering, pregnancy and childbirth in ways that few others writers have attempted. Here is a biting realism, in the relations between men and women and in the expectations and failures of their assigned roles.
Each story is illumined by moments of harsh poetry. They are carefully crafted snapshots of our condition. In the title story, an isolated young mother is locked in to a custody battle with her abusive husband; ‘Right to Reply’ shows three generations of women confronting the terrible legacy of their family’s past; in ‘Toby’, a woman obsessed with hygiene finally snaps, when she finds her home is infested with fleas. The precision of Rahill’s prose, the stoicism of her unflinching narrative gaze, reveal characters caught up in violently emotional situations.
The version of motherhood found here is painful. Yet its endurance, as nature’s greatest force, is brilliantly and compassionately rendered.
Praise for In White Ink
‘These stark, brave and powerful stories could only have come from Elske Rahill, one of the most interesting writers to come out of Ireland in the past decade. Her eye for the savage truths of how people, particularly women – particularly mothers – must navigate the territory allowed to them is original, determined and necessary.’ Belinda McKeon
‘This is the real stuff, no doubt about it. A collection of beautifully balanced short stories written in prose which is both visceral and exquisite in its emotional unrest and intimacy.’ Mike McCormack
‘Rahill writes pain and pathos and disillusion very beautifully; In White Ink is a fine and enthralling collection.’ Sara Baume
‘Elske Rahill’s sentences are relentlessly heat-seeking. Her prose takes risk upon risk, and a marvellous dark clarity governs the worlds inside her stories.’ Mary O’Donoghue
Out of stock
| ISBN | 9781786691057 |
|---|
| Dimensions | 228 × 145 mm |
|---|---|
| Format | Hardback: 288pp |
| Publication Date | October 2017 |
Lilliput Press –
“This collection of stories is powerfully written, evocative and original. The language is poetic and detailed, and in the stories which explore silence and the price of speaking out, such as Brides, there is a subtle intensity. If you only read one collection of short stories this year, read this one.”
Lilliput Press –
‘[Rahill’s stories] fearlessly, nakedly, crash into the darker sides of real life.’ Irish Times Book of the Year.
Lilliput Press –
‘These stories draw you into their maternal arms then fling you to the gutter, leaving you baffled by the troubles you’ve witnessed in their deceptive warmth’ Belfast Telegraph.
Lilliput Press –
‘Rahill offers a mix of mothers in her 11 stories, the most affecting of which is the first-person story of the titular In White Ink.’ Irish Times.
Lilliput Press –
‘Rahill is a brilliant bloody writer – gossamer light prose laced with nuclear tipped torpedoes. I consumed these stories in one great greedy gulp. More please!’ Rosita Sweetman.
Lilliput Press –
‘Rahill has a keen sense of the varieties of sexual desire, of social inequality, grief and a withering eye for the ridiculous … [Her] stories will kiss you goodnight and then give you nightmares’ Irish Independent.