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107th out of 212 books
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Everything in This Country Must
by
Colum McCann (Goodreads Author)
In his fourth book, Colum McCann turns to the "troubles" in Northern Ireland and reveals the reverberations of political tragedy in the most intimate lives of men and women, parents and children. In the title story, a teenage girl must choose between allegiance to her Catholic father and gratitude to the British soldiers who have saved the family's horse. The you...more
Paperback, 160 pages
Published
March 7th 2001
by Picador
(first published 2000)
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Everything in This Country Must is a small collection by Colum McCann which includes two short stories and one novella. The book begins with the title story "Everything in This Country Must" which is the story of a father and daughter whose lives have been ruined by the death of the mother and daughter at the hands of soldiers. However when their best draft horse is about to drown it is soldiers which come to help them pull it out of the water, something the father is unable to make pe...more
A slim volume of one novella and two short stories set during "The Troubles" in Ireland. I have read quite a few novels set in Ireland this year and I find that each author has a slightly different view of events that led to so much violence. I don't necessarily agree with the blurb on the cover which states that this is "the only book" to read on this period of Irish history. It is such a complicated issue that I feel the more we read, the more we can try to understand t...more
Okay, so, see, there's this place called Ireland? And it's really poor? Or, well, anyway, it used to be and stuff. So anyway, this Irish guy comes here, I mean to America, and he writes about these Irish people from when it was all poor and stuff? And so these stories are, like, really really sad and the people are all poor and kinda mean and they don't seem like they ever smile or anything? But they're all, like, really really trying to be good but something Irish just won't let em! Honest!
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This is my first Colum McCann book. After reading this one, I will definitely read more. His writing, while spare, considered and focused, was almost lyrical in its use of language, and drove me to re-read many sentences I found particularly lovely. As an example, I quote this from the first story in the book (**potential spoiler**):
"The ticking was gone from my mind and all was quiet everywhere in the world and I held the curtain like I held the sound of the bullets going in...more
"The ticking was gone from my mind and all was quiet everywhere in the world and I held the curtain like I held the sound of the bullets going in...more
Not quite up to the standard of Let the Great World Spin, but these are much different stories on a different scale.
The two short stories and novella in this collection all revolve around “the Troubles” in the North of Ireland which haunted generations of Irish people on both sides of the border as well as in Britain for decades. Significantly, none of the main characters are directly involved in direct conflict. In the first, titular, story a Catholic farmer and his daughter receive...more
The two short stories and novella in this collection all revolve around “the Troubles” in the North of Ireland which haunted generations of Irish people on both sides of the border as well as in Britain for decades. Significantly, none of the main characters are directly involved in direct conflict. In the first, titular, story a Catholic farmer and his daughter receive...more
Everything in This Country Must consists of two short stories and a novella, which are set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The first short story, "Everything in This Country Must", is narrated by a farm girl whose mother and sister were killed by British army troops, who struggles vainly alongside her embittered father to rescue his beloved draft horse from a raging river, until British soldiers come to their aid. "Wood", the second short story, describes a poverty s...more
I had forgotten how powerful his writing is. These books tell stories about life in Ireland during the Thatcher years. The novella tells about a boy whose uncle is on a hunger strike in a prison. It's really just a glimpse at the struggles the boy is going through, racked with the pain of growing up, the times, the trouble that he can't completely comprehend, and in the end his attempts to lash out in a futile effort to overcome the obstacles that are haunting him.
this was a pretty good book. i love short stories and novellas. and i like irish stories. the first 2 stories were entertaining. the novella was very good. it was about a teenage boy (and i don't want to give away too much else) but he was so well drawn, it was almost painful. just like being a teenager. i would definitely recommend this book.
I guess all of you know that Colum McCann won the National Book Award. I read this book before he received the recognition he so richly deserves. It reveals the stark and harsh lives of the Irish and the effects on their adolescents but you don't recoil while reading it because he uses the lilt of the Irish.
My favorite story, "Hunger Strike"
Though we are not observing the strike in Belfast per se, its presence is in the boy’s anger, his questions. It haunts everything. And this haunting is perhaps what makes it so powerful—all that is in between the lines.
Though we are not observing the strike in Belfast per se, its presence is in the boy’s anger, his questions. It haunts everything. And this haunting is perhaps what makes it so powerful—all that is in between the lines.
A quick read, beautifully written. 2 short stories and a novella all gracefully, powerfully written showing the violence done to (and by) 'regular' people and the impossible decisions that State violence forces them to make. McCann is a master, as always.
The novella included in this collection "Hunger Strike" is very intriguing for the questions it raises but doesn't answer. It is as beautifully written and haunting a piece of fiction as I can remember and completely transporting.
Don't love it as much as his novels, but then again, these stories and the novella have hung with me all year in a way that other books simply have not, so there's that.
Three stories, all of which are absolutely top notch. I recommend it whole-heartedly. My slight complaint with the previous collection I read by McCann doesn't apply here- the voice is strong and great and confident (and thankfully no attempted american voice).
do it.
the third story is a novella about a boy whose uncle is on hunger strike in northern ireland and it is heartbreaking. just utterly devastating.
do it.
the third story is a novella about a boy whose uncle is on hunger strike in northern ireland and it is heartbreaking. just utterly devastating.
These poignant tales of The Troubles portray the human spirit under duress: some succumb to the shackles of a partisan history; others try to rise above. Beautiful, underwritten, moving.
J'ai mis la main par hasard sur ce McCann pour finalement me laisser charmer par son style d'écriture. Un auteur à découvrir!
2 stories and a novella about the troubles in Northern Ireland from the perspective of children. It's great!
Had it on my shelf because I loved "Zoli" from McCann....a collection of two short stories and a novella, it is formatted in a manner suitable for 'easy reading'-- and that's exactly what it was. Perhaps it is the kind of book that needs to be read slowly, or more than once, to be fully appreciated. I didn't get much out of the stories other than in-the-moment entertainment, but as a quick read, I was compelled to finish the book in two sittings. The writing is bare. Enough to tell a s...more
Two short stories and a novella about Northern Ireland. Painful and gorgeous.
heartbreaking, amazing, powerful
Colum McCann is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers. His newest novel, Let the Great World Spin is brilliant written and profoundly moving.
I read this so long ago, now trying to write a review is difficult other than to say that I found this book about the strife in Ireland and its effect on one family extremely moving. I definitely recommend it.
Not a comfortable read by any means, but McCann's writing is beautiful, creating stories with a poignancy that will stay with the reader for a long while after closing the covers.
The first story in this book is really great. The other two are mediocre.
I'll be honest, I didn't finish it. Not my type of short stories. Luckily I bought it for a quarter
Irish short stories- I didn't like the endings
Greta
added it
Colum novels hooked me on his style before I read this thin book of two short stories & a novella, and I'm glad because shortness does not offer the intrigue of his longer works.
Mstree
marked it as to-read
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Colum McCann is the author of two collections of short stories and four novels, including "This Side of Brightness,""Dancer" and “Zoli,” all of which were international best-sellers. His newest novel “Let the Great World Spin” will come out in 2009. His fiction has been published in 26 languages and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Paris Review and othe...more
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“The ticking was gone from my mind and all was quiet everywhere in the world and I held the curtain like I held the sound of the bullets going into the draft horse, his favourite, in the barn, one two three, and I stood at the window in Stevie’s jacket and looked and waited and still the rain kept coming down outside one two three and I was thinking oh what a small sky for so much rain.”
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