In Too Deep, and Other Short Stories

Book excerpt: This is a new collection of short stories from the pen of one of Ireland's most-talented emerging writers, Billy O'Callaghan. I read and re-read, on and on until the darkness settled thick enough around me that I could no longer see the large-printed words on the gaudily illustrated pages, and then I clambered from the attic and threw myself into the story again while seated beside the fire. The wind carved elegiac plunder in the chimney and every banshee wail exploded awake a freshly forgotten colour in my mind. Children see the world in different lights, the brilliance of which is far too easily given up. This time, discovering them anew, I held fast and determined that I'd never again let go. With its stories of lost love and shared secrets, tender moments and little victories, In Too Deep is a wonderful follow-up to Billy's collection In Exile.