I am now starting on the latest Joseph O’Connor’s collection of short stories and a novella. I have to say, short stories have occupied my mind for the last few years much more than novels, both in reading them and in my own writing. Maybe it is because they always seem more real to me, as if their characters are people I have met here and there over the course of my life, with the fragmented way that other people’s lives make themselves known so often. It is also the punchy power of the short story that I love, its beautiful way of making a point and its sketchiness that can sometimes so suddenly become an amazingly detailed drawing.
I am very excited that so many short story collections have been published recently – hopefully, this is a trend that will keep developing.
Not Made For Northern Weather 