The New Yorker: "Fjord of Killary" by Kevin Barry

Kevin Barry has a novel coming out, but based on its title, I'd guess this story is just a story. (But I could be wrong about that; it might just be the rare excerpt that works well on its own.) Which is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned, because mostly I liked it a lot.

But first things first. Caoimhin (Irish for "Kevin") has acquired a 350-year-old hotel ("So I bought an old hotel on the fjord of Killary," is the first line, which I love). He had wanted to escape the city and had romant...