A Christmas Singsong: Mayo writer's latest collection arrives

MAYO author Martin Keaveney’s new collection has arrived just in time for Christmas.

Singsong is a collection of 10 stories, some of which have appeared in various magazines in Ireland and abroad and several previously unpublished.

Set from morning to night, the characters here have similarities to previous books by this author: isolated, challenged with understanding everyday life, some reacting with humour, others passively awaiting an opportunity and still others reacting decisively.

‘Dawn Chorus’ opens the collection by bringing us to an isolated man’s obsession with a biker at his local petrol station. In ‘The Mourning’, a woman finds a strange and surreal encounter awaiting her at a lake. ‘Jargon Wine’ tells the peculiar events of a man’s interest in a particular bottle of wine. ‘Sunshine’ reveals the seething anger of a rural woman, while ‘The Viewing’ is a tale of a strange and macabre funeral.

The second half of the book brings the evening to life with a tale of a failed businessman’s encounter with three priests at an oriental restaurant, while ‘The Hunter’ focusses on the emergency call of a doctor to a remote country pub at closing time. ‘The Walker’ depicts a man’s late night stroll on a motorway.

The titular story follows a man’s search for a place to sleep in a foreign city while reliving a street singing tour with his brother, and the final tale creates a vision of three generations.

While these stories move away from Keaveney’s popular farmer tales, they bring instead a gritty and darkly humorous vision of the city and suburbia. While the characters of Singsong may be much less practical than their counterparts in The Rainy Day, their tales nevertheless are a unique and absorbing reading experience.

Singsong is published by Penniless Press. Available at all bookshops/online and direct at https://martinkeaveney.com/shop/ (€19.95).