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Barcelona

Brief Description
In Barcelona, we meet a cast of characters who live turbulent inner lives. In a Spanish hotel room, a marriage unravels as a young wife is haunted by a past love. A father travels to Paris to meet his scientist son and is exposed to his... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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A captivating short story collection from award-winning novelist Mary Costello exploring love, loss and the turbulent lives of ordinary people

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In Barcelona, we meet a cast of characters who live turbulent inner lives. In a Spanish hotel room, a marriage unravels as a young wife is haunted by a past love.

A father travels to Paris to meet his scientist son and is exposed to his son's true nature. A woman attends a reading by a famous author and comes to some painful realisations about her own marriage.

The stories in Barcelona reveal the underlying disquiet of modern life and the sometimes brutal nature of humanity. Whether on city streets, long car journeys, or in suburban rooms, we glimpse characters as they approach those moments of desperation—or revelation—that change or reshape fate.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781805301844

Publisher: Canongate Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 07 March 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Canongate Books

Edition: Export/Airside - Export/Airside/Ireland

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 16.0mm

Width: 136.0mm

Height: 216.0mm

Weight: 199g

Pages: 192

About the Author

Mary Costello lives in Galway. Her short story collection, The China Factory (2012), was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award and shortlisted for an Irish Book Award. Her first novel, Academy Street (2014), won the Irish Novel of the Year Award at the Irish Book Awards and was named overall Irish Book of the Year. The River Capture, her second novel, was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, the Dalkey Book Awards and the Kerry Group Awards.

Also by Mary Costello

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  • The China Factory
    A collection of twelve exquisite stories that explore how ordinary men and women endure the trials and complexities of life and the ripples of disquiet that lie beneath the surface. An elderly schoolteacher recalls the single act of youthful passion that changed her life forever; a young gardener has an unsettling encounter with a suburban housewife; a wife who miscalculated...
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  • The River Capture
    From the winner of the Irish Book of the Year Award comes this lyrical and quietly profound story of romance, family legacy and the enduring literary power of James Joyce. Thirty-four-year-old Luke O'Brien has left the city to live a quiet, bookish life on the River Sullane in County Waterford. Alone in his big house, he longs for a return...
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  • Academy Street
    Academy Street is the heart-breaking and evocative story of one woman's life spanning six decades. Tess's childhood in 1940's rural Ireland is defined by the sudden death of her mother. Later, in New York, she encounters the ferocious power and calamity of love, and the effects of catastrophic fate. The novel resonates with the rhythms of memory and home as...
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  • Barcelona
    THE IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER A marriage unravels in a Spanish hotel room as a young wife is haunted by a past love. A father travels to Paris to meet his scientist son and is exposed to his son's true nature. A woman attends a reading by a famous author and comes to some painful realisations about her own marriage. The...
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  • A Beautiful Loan
    Exquisitely written and profoundly moving-the new literary novel from an award-winning Irish author. 'An exceptional, compulsive novel of love, loss and courage. SINEAD GLEESON 'Mary Costello is a writer of rare and exquisite sensitivity' PAUL LYNCH 'One of our foremost women writers' GUARDIAN This is Anna's story. In Dublin in 1985, nineteen-year-old Anna Hughes is in thrall to Peter Gallagher,...
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