Fishing the Sloe-Black River

Stories

By: Colum McCann

Narrated by: Colum McCann

The short fiction of Colum McCann documents a dizzying cast of characters in exile, loss, love, and displacement.

There is the worn boxing champion who steals clothes from a New Orleans laundromat, the rumored survivor of Hiroshima who emigrates to the tranquil coast of Western Ireland, the Irishwoman who journeys through America in search of silence and solitude. But what is found in these stories, and discovered by these characters, is the astonishing poetry and peace found in the mundane: a memory, a scent on the wind, the grace in the curve of a street.

Fishing the Sloe-Black River is a work of pure augury, of the channeling and re-spoken lives of people exposed to the beauty of the everyday.

Another chance to enjoy McCann’s reading his verses.

His World peopled with simple Irish folk comes alive in these beautifully crafted short stories. The prose reads like poetry and his narration adds even more depth. These are not autobiographical tales but definitely based in a World he knows well.

Four Stars. ****

Wonderfully poetic prose as usual from mc cann.

Colum Mc Cann never fails to entice with his poetic prose. No matter the topic, his art prevails and inspires.