Harvard Book Store Virtual Event: Kevin Barry

Presenting That Old Country Music: Stories in conversation with PETER ORNER

Harvard Book Store’s virtual event series welcomes award-winning writer KEVIN BARRY—author of the acclaimed novel Night Boat to Tangier—for a discussion of his latest story collection, That Old Country Music. He will be joined in conversation by PETER ORNER, author of Maggie Brown & Others: Stories.

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While payment is not required, we are suggesting a $3 contribution to support this author series, our staff, and the future of Harvard Book Store—a locally owned, independently run Cambridge institution. In addition, by purchasing a copy of That Old Country Music on harvard.com, you support indie bookselling and the writing community during this difficult time.

About That Old Country Music

With three novels and two short story collections published, Kevin Barry has steadily established his stature as one of the finest writers not just in Ireland but in the English language. All of his prodigious gifts of language, character, and setting in these eleven exquisite stories transport the reader to an Ireland both timeless and recognizably modern. Shot through with dark humor and the uncanny power of the primal and unchanging Irish landscape, the stories in That Old Country Music represent some of the finest fiction being written today.

Praise for That Old Country Music

“I had to quit reading this book the first day I had it in my hands, just so I could have it to read the next day. It’s that good.” —Richard Ford

“Kevin Barry’s new collection of melodic and melancholy short stories, set against the harsh, majestic landscape of the Irish countryside, conjures a dark and richly textured world haunted by history. Read slowly and savor.”  —Vulture

“There are no bad Kevin Barry books. There are no sedate Kevin Barry books. Every darkly-soulful tragicomedy he produces—be it a novel or a short story collection—is a wild, electrified beast of language that throws you up on its back as it dances with manic glee around the lonesome, haunted west of Ireland landscape . . . The stories in That Old Country Music have all the hypnotic pathos and inimitable linguistic verve of Barry at his very best.” —LitHub