Staying Thin for Daddy is the debut English-language short story collection from Brennan, one of Ireland's leading writers in both the Irish and English languages. The book was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Collection Award.
In these delightful, melancholy prose sketches Maeve Brennan goes in pursuit of the ordinary, taking us on a tour of the cheap hotels, unassuming restaurants, and crowded streets of New York City.
In the stories that compose this scintillating collection, Maeve Brennan turns her anatomist's eye to the ugly feelings that teem just beneath the surface of family life - doing so, however, with an attention to detail that makes these unsparing portraits luminous and exquisite.
Nineteen previously unpublished stories by acclaimed crime writers, each one set in Dublin. Includes Ray Banks, James O. Born, Ken Bruen, Reed Farrell Coleman, Eoin Colfer, Jim Fusilli, Patrick J. Lambe, Craig McDonald, Pat Mullan, John Rickards, Peter Spiegelman, Olen Steinhauer, Charlie Stella, Duane Swierczynski, Sarah Weinman and others.
When Mitchell is released from prison after serving three years for a vicious attack he doesn't remember, he reluctantly finds himself caught up with Robert Gant, a ruthless lowlife with violent plans. Attempting to stay out of Gant's way, Mitchell finds work as a handyman at the mansion of a faded movie actress.