Kevin Barry
Kevin Barry is an Irish novelist and short story author who has achieved remarkable critical acclaim and success in a relatively short time period. His work has been published in the Eye and the Irish Times, and his stories have appeared in Best British Short Stories, New Irish writing Skips and Digressions: An Anthology of Irish Short Fiction and Best European Fiction.
Barry was born in Limerick, Ireland in 1973. He studied English at university, and for a time worked as a reporter. During this period, he wrote short stories and read a great deal. His writing begun to be published in various publications, including The Stinging Fly, Granta and London Magazine, which lead to his first published collection Dark Lies the Island, a collection of short stories released in 2009.
Barry is primarily known for his acclaimed novel City of Bohane, released in 2011. Set in a dystopian dystopia of the future, it tells the story of a divided city ruled by corrupt gangs. Barry's skill in painting a compelling and detailed picture of the twisted criminal underworld of Bohane has won him high praise. The Independent newspaper described it as a "magnificently vivid sense of place." The novel brought Barry to the forefront of the literary world and won him the International IMPAC Dublin Award.
Barry also wrote a highly praised novel, Beatlebone, released in 2015. Though Barry has only written two novels, they have both received considerable praise. Beatlebone tells the decades-spanning story of musician John Lennon's search for solace on an Irish island. His search leads to surreal, dreamlike adventures as well as a more conventional story of love, loss and redemption. The Financial Times described the novel as a "blend of fantasy and ear-worm-catchy language."
Barry's short stories, which won him the Rooney Prize for Literature in 2011, remain some of his most admired works. This collection of stories, Night Boat to Tangier, was published in 2019 and includes stories that have been compared to the works of Beckett and Joyce.
Though Barry is chiefly known for his fiction, he also wrote the screenplay for the 2016 movie, Living with Yourself, which stars Paul Rudd as a down-on-his luck man who embarks on a strange journey after undergoing an experimental beauty treatment.
Barry's recent work has caused him to become one of the most renowned writers of Irish fiction, and his upcoming work has been highly anticipated. His work has proven his ability to captivate readers with vivid universe-building full that show how the past follows the future. In particular, the worlds Kevin Barry has created seem alive with possibilities, hinting that he is only just beginning to scratch the depths of his imagination.