Join us for readings from the west of Ireland and the east of Newfoundland, featuring Colin Barrett and Terry Doyle on November 9 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Flying Books, 784 College St. (near Shaw), Toronto

The second book from the “exact and poetic” (New York Times) author of critical smash Young Skins, winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35, Colin Barrett’s Homesickness is an emotionally resonant and wonderfully wry collection that follows the lives of outcasts, misfits, and malcontents from County Mayo to Canada. 

The Wards are a working-class Newfoundland family on the cusp of upheaval. The children are becoming adults, the adults are growing old, and the new dog was probably stolen. When a sudden illness forces the Wards together, can they finally learn to be close-knit? Terry Doyle’s unsettling, at times hilarious novel explores the instability of nuclear families and the depths of dysfunction. Family is family—you don’t get to choose. So what, exactly, do you get to choose?

Colin Barrett was born in Canada in 1982 and grew up in County Mayo, Ireland. In 2009 he was awarded the Penguin Ireland Prize, and in 2014 his debut collection of stories Young Skins was published and awarded The Rooney Prize, The Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize and The Guardian First Book Award. He is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree. He lives in Toronto with his wife and daughter.

Terry Doyle is from the Goulds, Newfoundland. His first book, DIG, was a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Fiction, the ReLit Award for Fiction, the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award for Fiction, and the Alistair MacLeod Short Fiction Award. His first novel, The Wards, was published in June, 2022.

Books will be available for purchase, and the authors will be signing.

Admission is free. Masks are recommended but not required.