Irish Stories

By: Christopher Morash

Published by Random House, 2026-03-03

A dazzling Pocket Classics collection of thirty-three short stories from across two centuries, showcasing the remarkable breadth and depth of Irish literary talent

Ireland has a long and glorious literary heritage that has always found particularly vivid expression in the short story form. The selections in Irish Stories reflect both rural and urban settings and the wide variety of literary styles that Irish writers have excelled at, including humor, literary fiction, ghost stories, and crime fiction.

Here are early tales that draw on the vibrant folkloric traditions of the Emerald Isle, alongside such globally influential modernist titans as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. The icons of a mid-twentieth-century golden age collected here include Elizabeth Bowen, Flann O’Brien, Frank O’Connor, Maeve Brennan, and Edna O’Brien, while a more recent literary flowering of the story form is amply represented by the works of Anne Enright, Colm Tóibín, Claire Keegan, Kevin Barry, Roddy Doyle, Sally Rooney, and many more. Irish Stories is an endlessly entertaining tribute to the imaginative riches of an extraordinary land.

Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.