ARMEL DAGORN reveals the cruelty within two poignant short stories, one French, one Irish: ‘Picture this: a man steps out, and maybe it’s a good day, and the stars, or traffic lights, align, and all the simple pleasures of a sweet summer morn are revealed to the purposeful flaneur.’
LOUISE MURRAY explores Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales: ‘Look beneath the surface and simplicity of the narrative, and the reader will find concealed there a deep complexity which complements the ornateness of prose – a complexity of morality, of feeling and of soul.’
STORY: We are delighted to bring you ‘An Armenian in Dublin’, a short story from Irish author Mary O’Donnell: ‘Galo and me have made our way home from the town’s newest watering hole, the Bogota Bar, which describes itself in the local paper as “a meeting point for all things Latino —music, dance & the best of vino!” Someone had hung castanets on the walls, along with pictures of flamenco dancers, and posters of bulls…’
ARIELLA DIAMOND gives a personal response to Rob Doyle’s short story collection This is the Ritual and examines its relationship to Joyce’s Ulysses: ‘The influences of Ulysses on this collection of stories is hard to ignore and, in its way, it is a kind of homage to the King of Modernism, it is a step forward into the future of Ulysses and I love every inch of it…’
