Roaming and Reading: Coastal Ireland

'Young Skins' by Colin Barrett
'Young Skins' by Colin Barrett
Courtesy of Grove Atlantic

For this week's Roaming & Reading, MPR News' Tom Crann stepped in for Kerri Miller, who is off quite literally roaming and reading in Italy with an MPR travel group.

Inspired by the craggy cliffs of the Irish coast from his own recent trip, Crann's pick is "Young Skins" by Colin Barrett.

The collection of short stories centers around the fictional town of Glanbeigh, Ireland, a coastal locale populated by people are broken in many ways. Published in March, Barrett's book has picked up the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the Guardian First Book Award, among other accolades.

In many ways, the town resembles the places that Barrett himself grew up. "I've transformed my experience into a fictional entity," he said of the collection.

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