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The Hill Road
In a series of four interlinked novellas, four generations of an Irish farm family share unfulfilled dreams, missed opportunities, and compromised moral decisions, from a dairyman who falls for the younger sister of a woman he jilted, to a spinster who remembers her love for a soldier shattered by his World War I experiences. A first collection. 20,000 first printing.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published July 21, 2005
About the author
Patrick O'Keeffe
12 books7 followersPatrick O’Keeffe is the author of “The Hill Road”, which won the 2005 Story Prize (which has the largest cash prize for any fiction award in the US - $20,000.00). The book is a collection of 4 novellas set in a fictional Irish dairy farming village. This setting would appear to be one that is especially close to Patrick O’Keeffe’s heart, as he himself was born on an Irish dairy farm in County Limerick in the 60s. He first started writing in his 20s. Patrick O’Keeffe initially went to the US as an illegal immigrant in 1986, where he did casual labour, such as bar work and building. In 1989, Patrick O’Keeffe was fortunate enough to win a Green Card in a lottery, and so he returned to the US, where he studied English at the University of Kentucky. In 1998, Patrick O’Keeffe was accepted onto the University of Michigan MFA writing program, where he studied with Nicholas DelBanco, Eileen Pollack, and Charles Baxter. In 2000, Patrick O’Keefe was one of the recipients of the Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship, and won the Chamberlain Award for Creative Writing. After his graduation in 2000, Patrick O’Keefe joined the University of Michigan as a popular lecturer in their creative writing department. Patrick O’Keeffe is currently working on his debut novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
June 14, 2013
I hate when reviewers write descriptions such as "remarkable achievement" and "handsome, subtle narratives" and "dark beauty" because all I think then is about how I'm about to take my medicine with this award winner. I'd rather say the The Hill Road entertained me with great stories with characters who feel like real people, and who I have genuinely missed since finishing the book. I'd do anything to share a jar of Paddy's whiskey with Aunt Mary on the porch as she spills the family secrets. This place is of an Ireland not so long ago, yet long enough that one bullock or one ill-fated tumble in the grass can ruin your life. As O'Keefe writes, "This time was at the end of something," as horses were fading out and tractors about to come in, and more people would emigrate to America and tourists would buy up the quaint landscape. But for now we're in the Kilroan parish, with a pub, and land, and a store, and stories that mean everything to the people who live there, so they mean everything to you.
October 14, 2014
I'm not much at writing book reviews, but I'd like to say a few words about this collection of four stories.
Growing up, my grandmother, and the rest of my mom's side, lived in a very small community in far northern Wisconsin, in and around the town of Washburn.
Reading these stories drew me back to the houses and farms and people of that area, where everyone knew everyone else's children, even us, the grandkids, the summer visitors. Everyone knew someone in the wars. Everyone went to church and everyone shared stories -- different from these, naturally, but not quite so much.
I read this book straight through, this evening, while it rained here in Chicago, and now, were I less responsible, I'd be on the road, 8 hours to go.
Growing up, my grandmother, and the rest of my mom's side, lived in a very small community in far northern Wisconsin, in and around the town of Washburn.
Reading these stories drew me back to the houses and farms and people of that area, where everyone knew everyone else's children, even us, the grandkids, the summer visitors. Everyone knew someone in the wars. Everyone went to church and everyone shared stories -- different from these, naturally, but not quite so much.
I read this book straight through, this evening, while it rained here in Chicago, and now, were I less responsible, I'd be on the road, 8 hours to go.
April 14, 2016
This is a great book with the awesome story!! i love it so far!!
December 31, 2025
I've read this book twice now, and I liked it even more the second time. But I was pretty fond of it the first time, too! Here's a short piece I wrote back when it first came out:
Although Patrick O'Keeffe has lived in America for a couple of decades now — a good deal of that time in Ann Arbor — it is clear that his imagination remains firmly rooted in the Ireland he left when he was in his twenties. His first book, The Hill Road, a collection of four long stories, is set in rural Ireland, in and around a fictional village that seems to be hidden somewhere on the map of County Tipperary. The time period of the stories appears to be, for the most part, sometime in the 1960s or 1970s, the time of the generation who came of age just before the country was transformed by the EU economic miracle, when life — and all the problems and glories of it — was still contained within parish boundaries.
O'Keeffe does many things well in these quiet and evocative stories. He creates a setting with quick and masterful strokes. The four pieces here are connected by the place, the fictional village of Kilkelly and its neighboring towns and landscape. This is the working Irish countryside, still only a small step removed from poverty, certainly pastoral but not the kind of place usually found on postcards. His characters seem as real as my Irish relatives. But this storyteller is particularly good with his use of time. I suspect that either philosophically or constitutionally Patrick O'Keeffe has a sense that all of time is contained in the present moment. All of these stories move easily through chronologies, building tension and plot as moments from the past are placed beside the present, where even the future can be intimated in the weight of the past.
For instance, "The Postman's Cottage" begins with this wonderfully accented paragraph:
Every third or fourth Friday, up till thirty or forty years ago, which is long before milking machines were even heard of, and places not even too far in from the road still didn't have electricity, there used to be autumn fairs in the village of Pallas. After morning milking, the farmers who were selling would gather their heifers and bullocks and hunt them down the fields, along the byroads and the main road to the square in Pallas. For miles around you could hear the cattle lowing along the roads, although louder than them were the shouts of the farmers themselves swinging at and hitting the often restless beasts with their ash sticks.
Out of this carefully constructed pastoral paragraph is spun a web of passion, crime, and guilt that spans all the decades between the time mentioned there and the present, as seen in the memories of a recently widowed middle-aged woman who is riding a train from Dublin back toward her home. Over the course of some forty or more pages we follow the author back and forth across time, until the story emerges out of the evidence of memory, understated and more effective for being so, but frightening in its implications.
https://annarborobserver.com/articles...
Although Patrick O'Keeffe has lived in America for a couple of decades now — a good deal of that time in Ann Arbor — it is clear that his imagination remains firmly rooted in the Ireland he left when he was in his twenties. His first book, The Hill Road, a collection of four long stories, is set in rural Ireland, in and around a fictional village that seems to be hidden somewhere on the map of County Tipperary. The time period of the stories appears to be, for the most part, sometime in the 1960s or 1970s, the time of the generation who came of age just before the country was transformed by the EU economic miracle, when life — and all the problems and glories of it — was still contained within parish boundaries.
O'Keeffe does many things well in these quiet and evocative stories. He creates a setting with quick and masterful strokes. The four pieces here are connected by the place, the fictional village of Kilkelly and its neighboring towns and landscape. This is the working Irish countryside, still only a small step removed from poverty, certainly pastoral but not the kind of place usually found on postcards. His characters seem as real as my Irish relatives. But this storyteller is particularly good with his use of time. I suspect that either philosophically or constitutionally Patrick O'Keeffe has a sense that all of time is contained in the present moment. All of these stories move easily through chronologies, building tension and plot as moments from the past are placed beside the present, where even the future can be intimated in the weight of the past.
For instance, "The Postman's Cottage" begins with this wonderfully accented paragraph:
Every third or fourth Friday, up till thirty or forty years ago, which is long before milking machines were even heard of, and places not even too far in from the road still didn't have electricity, there used to be autumn fairs in the village of Pallas. After morning milking, the farmers who were selling would gather their heifers and bullocks and hunt them down the fields, along the byroads and the main road to the square in Pallas. For miles around you could hear the cattle lowing along the roads, although louder than them were the shouts of the farmers themselves swinging at and hitting the often restless beasts with their ash sticks.
Out of this carefully constructed pastoral paragraph is spun a web of passion, crime, and guilt that spans all the decades between the time mentioned there and the present, as seen in the memories of a recently widowed middle-aged woman who is riding a train from Dublin back toward her home. Over the course of some forty or more pages we follow the author back and forth across time, until the story emerges out of the evidence of memory, understated and more effective for being so, but frightening in its implications.
https://annarborobserver.com/articles...
August 8, 2009
What a wonderful book. This is a short story collection set in rural Ireland after World War 1. All the stories are sent in the same vicinity, near or around the Hill Road. Normally when I read a short story collection, I read one or two of the stories, then put it aside for later reading. But I couldn't with this collection; I had to keep reading, and I was sad when I ran out of them. It took a while before I realized that within each story there was a mystery, and slowly, slowly, the author peels the layers away and/or builds the information until you realize something strange, mysterious or wonderful happened, and you want to find out the mystery, but he never conclusively wraps things up. You think you know the answer, but you are not absolutely sure.
He writes wonderfully. Not an quick read, but not a difficult one either, as the stories move along beautifully, despite a repetitiveness. In some way I can't exactly pinpoint, I was reminded of reading Thomas Hardy. The colloquial language and scene setting makes you feel as though you are truly there, in rural Ireland, experiencing it all. I loved it!
He writes wonderfully. Not an quick read, but not a difficult one either, as the stories move along beautifully, despite a repetitiveness. In some way I can't exactly pinpoint, I was reminded of reading Thomas Hardy. The colloquial language and scene setting makes you feel as though you are truly there, in rural Ireland, experiencing it all. I loved it!
March 19, 2007
Since I wrote the description of the book when I added it, I will let that speak for me:
This book is a considerable literary achievement and must be admired for both its formidable textuality and the richness of its stories. The book, a series of four linked novellas, is a journey through several periods in Irish history. O'Keeffe, a writer of astounding magnitude, is able to make Ireland and her people come alive with sympathetic vigor and admirable candor. It is difficult to write a book that shows the linkages of history and culture without being pretentious and without preaching, but O'Keeffe does it. This is a book of great significance.
Everyone interested in language and its importance and skillful characterization must read this book.
This book is a considerable literary achievement and must be admired for both its formidable textuality and the richness of its stories. The book, a series of four linked novellas, is a journey through several periods in Irish history. O'Keeffe, a writer of astounding magnitude, is able to make Ireland and her people come alive with sympathetic vigor and admirable candor. It is difficult to write a book that shows the linkages of history and culture without being pretentious and without preaching, but O'Keeffe does it. This is a book of great significance.
Everyone interested in language and its importance and skillful characterization must read this book.
January 13, 2019
This book of somewhat overlapping stories takes place in rural Ireland. The first story, a novella titled The Hill Road, took a while to get used to because of the dialect. The next three stories, two about fifty pages each and one about twenty-five, seemed easier. All of the stories were suble and I think if I read them again I would catch something I missed the first time. The stories, very roughly, were about mistakes, death, missed love and broken hearts. Despite that, it was not depressing. The other stories are: Her Black Manitlla, The Postman's Cottage, and That's Our Name, which had previously been published as Looby's Hill.
May 23, 2007
These stories (or "linked novellas") are beautiful and heartbreaking, and the dialogue offers a delicious crash-course in Irish slang. When this book won the prestigious Story Prize, I heard people comparing it to DUBLINERS; before reading it myself, I was dubious of such ardent praise (who wouldn't be?), but after, I was won over. The only thing better than reading it yourself is hearing Patrick read from it.
February 15, 2010
Very well done, quite a promising debut. Parts of the novellas brought to mind the elements and techniques of "Dubliners". Could there be any higher praise for an Irish author? The writing in many places is quite beautiful. I really enjoyed this book and will keep an eye out for others by this author.
February 23, 2013
This collection of four novellas won the 2005 Story Prize (US annual award for best story collection). The writing is beautiful, the subject - life in an impoverished Irish village - bleak. O'Keefe, born on a dairy farm in County Limerick, emigrated to the United States in the mid 80's. After reading The Hill Road it's easy to see why.
May 6, 2011
Four short stories make up the story of a large group of Irish people through years of time in the same area of the lush green countryside. I liked this book a lot - drama, mystery and just good reading.
June 12, 2007
Beautiful, poetic language. I especially liked Her Black Mantilla and The Postman's Cottage. This man can write!
July 25, 2008
I totally forgot about this book until I came across a review of it. As soon as I saw the cover I remembered how much I enjoyed it. Very well written.
March 26, 2009
good Irish lit.
It will always be in my memory as Egyptian travel reading
It will always be in my memory as Egyptian travel reading
September 5, 2009
Another good writer depicting the hard scrabble Irish village life - is the field a bit exhausted? Hard to make it fresh?
Want to Read
November 18, 2009four stories held together by Hill Road; twists and jumps from past to present and back again
Read
December 2, 2010four novellas; different story lines but all in the same Irish town. A great read for me!
March 10, 2011
Short stories, well written.
November 18, 2012
Beautifully written. You will fall in love with the sentences.
March 10, 2015
Beautiful! writing is indeed musical. Stories full of humanity and poignant; loved each one. would read again---a rare behavior for me.
June 18, 2019
Excellent portrayal of rural Irish life.
December 31, 2021
I did an individual review of "The Postman's Cottage" which is the gem of the collection.
All four stories are set in a fictitious parish in rural Ireland. Life revolves around the milking of cows and bringing the milk to the creamery in a cart drawn by a pony where a company store gave you goods in exchange for the milk you brought in. Emigration is a constant theme as the land can only support so many. Each story gets at some dark secret below the simple, innocent surface.
"That's Our Name" is an example of what talented writers can do with a story. In conversation with others we always tell a story in chronological order and obviously from one perspective. If we were to do this with "That's our Name" it would go something like this - An old man assaults and without intending to, kills a girl that has been entertaining him, but not to his satisfaction. After he leaves, her teenage lover and his brother take her body and hang it from a tree on the murderer's property. The old man then enlists the help of a local who owes him gambling debts to first hide the body and then burn it in her house to cover the crime. The teenager and his brother then with the help of the gambler's wife escape to America and all the locals blame them. An interesting story, but in O'Keeffe's hands it is told from the perspective of the gambler's son; the teen; and the gambler's wife. Each has a part of the story but not the whole. In addition, there is a constant shifting of time back and forth. This is what builds mystery and tension. Why would there be blood on the body of a girl who hanged herself? Why is the old man trying to hide this body? The wife knows the body is in the Hen house. Why would she allow this? How did the two poor teens get to America, they have no money? These questions urge the reader to continue on. I think the meaning of the story is the power of names. The old man, Looby, has lots of land. He's mean but powerful as the hill is named after him. The Gleasons are the bad people of the village since the father is a thief. Thus, everyone assumes the boys must have killed the girl and not Looby. The gambler's wife wants to protect her family. She worries of the example the father sets for her son. When she discovers the fleeing Gleasons she gives them bread and plenty of money I believe so they will go far far away. Despite her misgiving that the dead girl was somebody's baby, she realizes that having the Gleasons flee the country will forever put the suspicion on them. Her husband's role in the cover-up will never be known and the family reputation protected.
"The Hill Road" was about a boy who comes to find a hero in a long dead soldier named Albert. Albert was the only man in the village who answered the call to serve in WWI. John Redmond was a moderate who had secured home rule and thought it would be wise for Ireland to show she was ready for independence by fighting on the side of civilization. He also dreamed that Catholics and Protestants would serve together and this would unify them (they ended up serving in different divisions). About 400,000 Irishmen did join. Their return was marked by controversy. Had they fought the wrong people? Some became black and tans. Others joined in with the rebels. Albert seemed to want normalcy. He felt the worst of life was behind him. But, PTSD, drinking, and womanizing cost him a chance to marry and he ends up taking his own life. At least that seems to be the story. As the boy tries to uncover the truth he finds that his relatives and neighbors have all concocted a variety of stories to explain the return of Albert, including his father's story that the devil himself took Albert over. I'm not sure of this long novella's ultimate meaning. Eventually, the boy grows to be a man and like many Irishmen he leaves the farm for Dublin. He also returns and finds that Albert was courageous to have the guts to kill himself. He seems to prefer his life in Dublin but does not find much meaning in it and looks forward to freedom beyond the confines of his previous life. The story does help to understand why so many had to move away. These tiny dairy farms cannot support but one head of a household.
All four stories are set in a fictitious parish in rural Ireland. Life revolves around the milking of cows and bringing the milk to the creamery in a cart drawn by a pony where a company store gave you goods in exchange for the milk you brought in. Emigration is a constant theme as the land can only support so many. Each story gets at some dark secret below the simple, innocent surface.
"That's Our Name" is an example of what talented writers can do with a story. In conversation with others we always tell a story in chronological order and obviously from one perspective. If we were to do this with "That's our Name" it would go something like this - An old man assaults and without intending to, kills a girl that has been entertaining him, but not to his satisfaction. After he leaves, her teenage lover and his brother take her body and hang it from a tree on the murderer's property. The old man then enlists the help of a local who owes him gambling debts to first hide the body and then burn it in her house to cover the crime. The teenager and his brother then with the help of the gambler's wife escape to America and all the locals blame them. An interesting story, but in O'Keeffe's hands it is told from the perspective of the gambler's son; the teen; and the gambler's wife. Each has a part of the story but not the whole. In addition, there is a constant shifting of time back and forth. This is what builds mystery and tension. Why would there be blood on the body of a girl who hanged herself? Why is the old man trying to hide this body? The wife knows the body is in the Hen house. Why would she allow this? How did the two poor teens get to America, they have no money? These questions urge the reader to continue on. I think the meaning of the story is the power of names. The old man, Looby, has lots of land. He's mean but powerful as the hill is named after him. The Gleasons are the bad people of the village since the father is a thief. Thus, everyone assumes the boys must have killed the girl and not Looby. The gambler's wife wants to protect her family. She worries of the example the father sets for her son. When she discovers the fleeing Gleasons she gives them bread and plenty of money I believe so they will go far far away. Despite her misgiving that the dead girl was somebody's baby, she realizes that having the Gleasons flee the country will forever put the suspicion on them. Her husband's role in the cover-up will never be known and the family reputation protected.
"The Hill Road" was about a boy who comes to find a hero in a long dead soldier named Albert. Albert was the only man in the village who answered the call to serve in WWI. John Redmond was a moderate who had secured home rule and thought it would be wise for Ireland to show she was ready for independence by fighting on the side of civilization. He also dreamed that Catholics and Protestants would serve together and this would unify them (they ended up serving in different divisions). About 400,000 Irishmen did join. Their return was marked by controversy. Had they fought the wrong people? Some became black and tans. Others joined in with the rebels. Albert seemed to want normalcy. He felt the worst of life was behind him. But, PTSD, drinking, and womanizing cost him a chance to marry and he ends up taking his own life. At least that seems to be the story. As the boy tries to uncover the truth he finds that his relatives and neighbors have all concocted a variety of stories to explain the return of Albert, including his father's story that the devil himself took Albert over. I'm not sure of this long novella's ultimate meaning. Eventually, the boy grows to be a man and like many Irishmen he leaves the farm for Dublin. He also returns and finds that Albert was courageous to have the guts to kill himself. He seems to prefer his life in Dublin but does not find much meaning in it and looks forward to freedom beyond the confines of his previous life. The story does help to understand why so many had to move away. These tiny dairy farms cannot support but one head of a household.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 21, 2024
I'm not sure how to describe this. This is a novella collection with some stories longer than others. It doesn't take place all that long ago (20th century 1917-1980s), but O'Keeffe portrays rural Ireland as a different world. The characters are real and vulnerable. I sometimes had to go back and re-read to see the foreshadowing. A point of conflict is where should a person's loyalty lie--with families of origin and old friends/neighbors/locals, or with finding love as an adult, bringing a new person in to meet the family, perhaps moving to Dublin or even moving abroad?
July 20, 2024
This is such a beautiful collection of novellas that capture an Irish countryside trapped in temporal and political boundaries. In gorgeous prose, O'Keeffe depicts an Ireland on the cusp on industrialization and social change, one where its residents are drowning in tradition, even as they attempt to thwart it. The sentences are lyrical, voice-driven, and carry the momentum of story and structure as they pull you deep into Irish culture.
July 24, 2023
The first 10 or 12 pages were slow, but once I got through those, I couldn't put this book down. It was a series of four novellas set in the same small town in Ireland over different generations. The characters, their community, and the troubles they faced came alive.
June 12, 2020
Tragic stories, beautifully told.
January 12, 2022
Not my favorite book. The title story was slow to read for me - not sure I like how the author notes spoken lines (he uses a - in place of quotation marks).
November 10, 2022
The tragic poverty of the Irish, the scourge of drink, and loss of dreams: award-winning pain.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews