‘When the story is finished, Muriel and Polly sit in silence. The coloured lights on the fuchsia bush twinkle against the black sea and the black mountain and the black sky. They sit in silence. They let the story settle.’
The Shelter of Neighbours is the much-anticipated new collection of short stories by acclaimed Irish writer ÉilÃs Nà Dhuibhne. Drawing on the Irish proverb, Ar Scáth a Chéile a Mhaireann na Daoine – people live in one another’s shelter or shadow – these fourteen stories draw us into the lives of characters who are caught in a moment of crisis. Forced to confront choices they have made and the legacies of the past, their stories speak of hard-won experience, of regret and loss, of knowledge and sometimes painful illumination.
By turns moving, ironic and lyrical, The Shelter of Neighbours is a powerful reminder that good stories reveal deep emotional and psychological truths about the individual and society.