Barcelona

Barcelona is full of devastating lines . . . Costello is working in the tradition of her literary heroes [Kafka, Musil, Coetzee]: delivering insights which are painful but also energising because of the beauty with which they're captured . . . The most impressive collection I've read in some time -- JOHN SELF * * The Times * *
Clear-eyed and provocative, bruised and bruising: these are the stories of a writer at the very top of her game -- EIMEAR McBRIDE
It is rare that a writer of fiction can evoke such depth of feeling and visceral/moral revulsion as Mary Costello . . . in stories dealing with cruelty to animals, especially the slaughter of farm animals; rare that marital intimacy is so powerfully rendered -- JOYCE CAROL OATES
Costello's writing is insistent, precise and unsparing. Everyday acts and ordinary lives are infused with a sense of the skull beneath the skin and of a catastrophe held tautly at bay * * Observer * *
Beautiful, quietly shattering . . . haunting, powerful stories . . . Costello explores the violence behind painful silences in domestic life . . . Amid complex chains of cruelty, Costello offers transcendent moments of completeness -- EMILY RHODES * * Guardian * *
[Costello is] a writer concerned with big issues of freedom, responsibility, power, inequality and suffering . . . A consistently elegant writer . . . One of the hallmarks of [her] writing is her ability to get up close to unpalatable truths and politely ask that the reader not look away * * Irish Times * *
There are memorable stories . . . [Costello] reflects on the world around her, examining its shortcomings with a forensic eye . . . A strong contender as the finest practitioner of the Joycean short story * * Irish Independent * *
Spare, unflinching . . . These elegant, emotionally complex stories are not comfortable or comforting to read, but they are beautifully, bruisingly honest * * Daily Mail * *
The characters in these stories yearn for connection, to be understood. Mary Costello shows how a fleeting insight or incident can transform a life completely and how the secret self determines our actions for better or worse. Gorgeously written, provocative and brave -- GABRIEL BYRNE
Praise for Mary Costello: With extraordinary devotion, Mary Costello brings to life a woman who would otherwise have faded into oblivion -- J. M. COETZEE