The Hill Road

Book excerpt: Winner of the 2005 Story Prize Reminiscent of Alice Munro and William Trevor, Patrick O'Keeffe's lyrical eloquence expressively unveils the cloistered world of a rural southwestern Irish town and its inhabitants. Brimming with thoughtful, gorgeous prose and linked by setting and circumstances that span generations, the four novellas in The Hill Road revolve around the parish of Kilroan and its inhabitants, and how, over time, the people and the community itself are transfigured by life-changing events. Marked by love, devotion, secrets, unfulfilled dreams, family intimacies, and missed opportunities, these characters embody the rugged unfolding of the landscape-a volatile place of natural beauty where stories alter lives. BACKCOVER: "A remarkable achievement . . . There is a wonderful Irish music running through O'Keeffe's prose, yet his tales of ordinary rural life in twentieth-century Ireland are unsparing and never sentimental." -The Baltimore Sun "Handsome, subtle narratives by an exquisitely talented Irishborn writer." -Elle "Lush and evocative . . . a dreamlike collection." -The New York Times Book Review