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The Meat Eaters

On sale

7th February 2002

Price: £10.99

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Selected: Paperback / ISBN-13: 9780753807569

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Michael Collins’s stories are about Ireland, about the Irish as they are and as they would like to be imagined. In the title story we see the fatal consequences of self-deception. Posing as a nationalist hero, a young man travels to America with a suitcase full of meat. The warm welcome he expects swiftly dematerialises as he awakes to the grim realities of life in hiding.

The vivid, surreal splendour of the writing allied with images of real people – the struggling widow, the careless father, the schoolboy and the philosopher, the good and the corrupt – make this an outstanding collection.

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Reviews

TLS
Collins is undoubtedly an exciting talent, capable of writing razor-sharp prose and he has produced a gripping, stylish novel that deserves to be read
THE LIST
A collection of colourful, surreal and vividly characterized stories already prompting comparison to Joyce and Beckett
Susan Hill, THE TIMES
One of the most exciting talents to have emerged not only in Ireland but anywhere in recent decades
THE TIMES
Reading Collins' stories . . . is like being mugged in a savage land
TELEGRAPH
Collins is a considerable stylist . . . his prose has a thoughtful, sinewy quality, a kind of subliminal toughness of mind
SCOTSMAN
[Collins] is a stylist, blessed with the gift of having something worth saying
INDEPENDENT
A style so arrestingly visual it hijacks the reader's concentration; dazzling with the energy and originality of the language