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Colin Barrett

Biography

Colin Barrett

Colin Barrett was born in 1982 and grew up in County Mayo. In 2009 he was awarded the Penguin Ireland Prize. HOMESICKNESS was named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times and Young Skins won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the Guardian First Book Award, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His work has been published in The New Yorker, A Public Space, Granta and The Stinging Fly. In 2015, Barrett was named a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35.”

Colin Barrett

Books by Colin Barrett

Wild Houses
by Colin Barrett - Fiction

As Ballina prepares for its biggest weekend of the year, introspective loner Dev answers his door on Friday night to find Doll English --- the younger brother of small-time local dealer Cillian English --- bruised and in the clutches of Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, County Mayo’s fraternal enforcers and Dev’s cousins. Dev’s quiet homelife is upturned as he is quickly and unwillingly drawn headlong into the Ferdias' frenetic revenge plot against Cillian. Meanwhile, Doll’s girlfriend, 17-year-old Nicky --- reeling from a fractious Friday and plagued by ghosts and tragedy of her own --- sets out on a feverish mission to save Doll, even as she questions her future in Ballina.