The Quick and the Dead

“Ó Cadhain pays tribute to both his own unpredictable life and those of the characters he conjured from his neighbors.”—John L. Murphy, Spectrum Culture

2022 PROSE Award Finalist, Literature category

“One of the most visionary writers ever to come out of Ireland.”—Belinda McKeon, Irish Independent

“Every sentence is packed with explosive power, not a word wasted, and the whole is almost unbearably moving.”—Hilary Mantel

"This is an important collection. An encounter with Ó Cadhain's work broadens the entire landscape of the Irish short story. It becomes darker, more far flung, and imaginatively turbulent."—Mike McCormack

"Ó Cadhain's stories are an integral part of the radical, antic, and mischievous stream of work that began to flow through Irish writing in the mid-twentieth century—in a happy alternative universe, he might be as celebrated now as Flann O'Brien or Samuel Beckett. He was an innovator and a glorious comedian."—Kevin Barry