In this collection of 15 stories by Liam Horan, published in October 2022 by Mayo Books Press, the concerns of someone moving through the rough and the smooth of middle age come to the surface – the loss of central figures in your life, the effort to place in context your existence thus far, the nostalgia for days that can’t return and the looming shadow of your own mortality.
Horan’s engaging characters range from the mild to the provocative. They nudge you with their messages of self-realisation, optimism and quiet acceptance as they navigate real-life dilemmas: the Spanish man returning to the Irish city where he met the love of his life, the journalist retracing old steps after the death of a long-lost friend, the woman breaking free of a coercive partner to rediscover her self-worth, the sports star redefining her relationship with her sport and herself, the father for whom the break-up of his daughter’s marriage sunders his fulfilling friendship with his son-in-law and the widower venturing out into the world again.
It is a collection that deals with change. In prose that is thoughtful and measured, and in west of Ireland settings, the journeys the characters make are both real and metaphorical.