The News From Dublin
Welcome to the second installment of our summer short-story series, where we’re meeting up every other week over video to discuss a new collection. This week, we discuss The News From Dublin by Colm Tóibín.
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JUNE 30, 2026
The News From Dublin
This conversation has been edited for clarity. Please note, it may still contain some transcription errors.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Andrew, The News From Dublin. What is the news from Dublin? What’d you think?
Andrew Womack: The news from Dublin—I definitely have thoughts about it overall, but knowing the format we started with last time, where we talk about our favorite story, I’d like to point out that my favorite story was the one I think was probably the least like the rest of them: “Summer of ’38.” I thought “Summer of ’38” was pretty profound—it gripped me throughout. It’s the story, for anyone who needs a memory jog, about Marta, who is in Spain during the Civil War. She has a fling that summer with a soldier whose name I can’t remember, they have a torrid affair, and she becomes pregnant. She needs to get married, so she marries a man named Paco, and years later they end up raising their daughter together and having two more children. The story is centered on the idea that the soldier is coming back into town—they’re both much older now—and someone’s trying to arrange a meeting between them. In a twist I didn’t expect, she did not meet him. It was just beautiful. I think it’s this sense that maybe it’s how we’re lulled into a lot of bad Netflix romances—you expect them to somehow meet, some kind of rekindling, or a question of what was—and I just love the idea that she’s presented with the idea of what was and it’s just like, I don’t want to know, I don’t care, and I made the right choice. She eventually stuck by her choice of staying with Paco, and it was just a really beautiful story—definitely my favorite of the bunch.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Is it possible that the other lover’s name was Rudolfo?
Andrew Womack: Yes, it was. Is that in the chat?
Rosecrans Baldwin: Thank you. Yeah.
Andrew Womack: Rudolfo. Yes.
Rosecrans Baldwin: What’d you think of the book, broadly speaking?
Andrew Womack: Broadly speaking, I love that there’s a novella—isn’t there always a novella? It’s always at the end, too, at the end of the short story collection. I thought it was lovely, but it probably could have been a short story. In general, my thought about a lot of the stories is there were some high points, definitely—a lot of questioning about what’s gonna happen, because he’s kind of doling out these details and you’re not sure where something’s gonna go. I think what ends up happening a lot of the time with the stories is he’ll just give you this huge twist, and sometimes it’s really awful, but it’s the way the stories all slowly reveal themselves to you. Personally, I kind of got a little tired of it over time—it was just teasing out these details, slowly fading and slowly revealing the story, and then once it finally comes into view, you can see that the character you’ve been following turns out to be a monster. You didn’t know, as in the case of “A Free Man,” where you’re not sure what the story of this person is, and then it starts to reveal itself that this person is, in fact, a monster. Or in the case of “A Sum of Money,” where you’re following this student and kind of hoping he’s not the thief you think he might be [Note: Sorry, I misspoke here, got this story mixed up with another. We’re never confused that he’s the thief! —Andrew], or that maybe in the end he’ll be able to somehow escape fate or escape his punishment from the school, or from his parents, and then you find out it’s all come to a head. It’s the way the stories kind of slowly reveal themselves to you that it felt like it got pretty formulaic throughout all the stories, and I yearned for something that was going to be different. So I loved “Summer of ’38,” even though it worked in a similar formula—it was the one that kind of stuck out a little bit more and didn’t feel like it was following the exact same cadence.
I bought this book at Half Price Books in Austin, Texas. As soon as I bought it, I walked away from the register, opened it up, and immediately started reading the story “Barton Springs,” which—for anyone who knows Austin, or has ever visited—is a famous pool here. So I kind of felt like it was a great entrance into the book, because I ended up reading that one first. This was a beautiful story. It’s about the death of his brother, about the loss of vitality—a lot about loss, and a lot about death, and looking back at the beauty of youth is what a lot of it’s about. And it’s the shortest story in the book, and I just thought, well, if they’re all like that, I’m set. And they weren’t.
Rosecrans Baldwin: OK, well, I’m sorry to hear it, and I at least, sorry, final question, follow-up question. As an Austinite, did it feel Accurate. Did it feel? “Barton Springs”?
Andrew Womack: I mean, close enough. It didn’t get into a lot of detail about the pool itself—mainly took place in the changing room, which, it could be like that.
Rosecrans Baldwin: OK. Well, I’ve never been there. Have been to the Springs. Next time. Next time. No, we’ve been to the pools with you and your kids. It was fun.
Andrew Womack: Yeah, I think locals would go to Deep Eddy. So that was just kind of—just saying.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Love the lack of gatekeeping going on. Austin information coming out. OK, Tristan, I caught you, don’t worry. First up is Peggy. Hi, Peggy, what was your favorite story? What are you thinking about this collection?
Peggy M: Hi, Rosecrans. So once again, I only read one story. The one I read well, I’m a specialist, because I don’t have time to read the whole book. So I’m actually here today with my sister, Kate M, and she reads the whole collection and chooses one story for me. So this time around, she chose “Summer of ’38,” and I also really liked it. I thought it reminded me of the Russian stories that George Saunders analyzes in A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. It’s, very understated, and every detail really pays its way. I didn’t know anything about the Spanish Civil War going into it, except for the book For Whom the Bell Tolls. And I thought it was really interesting that was a story about external action and ideological clarity. But this story was an internal story about ambiguity. And because I didn’t know anything about the Spanish Civil War, I read the Wikipedia entry and found something very interesting, which was After the war, there was an informal movement called the Pact of Forgetting. It was an agreement that people were not going to talk about the terrible things that had been done, they’re just going to move forward together into the future. And then the story is a perfect mood match to that movement.
Andrew Womack: That’s beautiful.
Peggy M: So I enjoyed that.
Andrew Womack: Yeah, that is so cool.
Peggy M: Oh, and I also I thought, Paco came off as neurodivergent in a time and a place that didn’t support that, so I like the fact that the story rewarded him with a good wife and children, and a good position.
Andrew Womack: I think that’s a really important point, and that’s something I took away from it as well—the neurodivergence. It was obvious he was just a devoted husband, a devoted father, and that he was rewarded for it. The pact of forgetting—that’s basically the story, isn’t it? That is “Summer of ’38.” That encapsulates the story—that’s really interesting.
Peggy M: Absolutely.
Andrew Womack: So cool.
Peggy M: At the end of the story, the lead character gives her daughter she breaks out the photographs with her daughter, Rosa, and she’s giving her the opportunity to ask questions, or to say, well, I, there’s something that didn’t make sense. But Rosa is devoted to her dad and isn’t interested in that, and so I think because of that, the narrator doesn’t I think there was a possibility that she would take Rosa to meet Rudolfo, but when Rosa was happy with things as the way they were, she just let it go.
Andrew Womack: I love it.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Awesome. Well, thank you, Peggy. Appreciate it, and in due time, I will thank your sister for her service. But next up is Bryn. Hi, Bryn. Tell us about this book, this story. Which one really touched you, or met where’d you where’s your favorite? And Brandon, your mic Brandon, you’re still muted, for what it’s worth.
Bryn Lerud: I turned off the raise hand, and I do turn off the mute. OK, anyway, “Summer of ’38” was my favorite, too, and I really loved the way that it ended, with she was, she went to see her daughter, and like you said, she showed the pictures. And then there was this beautiful little meditation at the end, where she’s going one way on the train, and then and she’s imagining this Rudolfo guy going the other direction, just sort of Repeating that same thing, that, they did have their moment, but then at the end. They’re each going their own separate ways, which it was done really beautifully. I liked that.
Andrew Womack: That detail—yeah, I remember that. It’s like you did.
Bryn Lerud: Yeah.
Andrew Womack: They were diverging, weren’t they? They just—it’s like they were continuing on their lives. Yeah, right? I love it.
Bryn Lerud: So can I talk about one other story?
Rosecrans Baldwin: For sure.
Andrew Womack: Depends on which one.
Bryn Lerud: The first one.
Andrew Womack: Oh, yeah.
Bryn Lerud: And the road.
Andrew Womack: “The Journey to Galway.”
Bryn Lerud: Oh, it’s a train to go away.
Andrew Womack: Oh yeah, true.
Bryn Lerud: I heard, Colm Tóibín lecture, this was a while back, 15 years ago, maybe, and his lect his whole lecture was about the history of Irish literature. It was super interesting, and he talked a lot about, W.B. Yeats and W.B. Yates’s, friendship with Lady Gregory. And when I was reading this story, I thought. Wait a minute, this woman, this is Lady Gregory, and I looked up the details, and it is. It’s about Lady Gregory, who was his friend, and who was really instrumental in Ireland in, reviving the Irish language, and she learned it. And she, translated all of the Irish, folk tales into English so that everybody could get to know these stories about Ireland. And So it was just really cool to me to, recognize that’s who this story was about, and she really did. Go to Galway. She the thing that tipped me off was Kool, that’s where she’s from, C-O-O-L-E. So and it’s really it’s Cool Park, and I went to visit it when I was in Ireland, and it’s a really It was a really interesting trip. But yeah, she her and Yates wrote poems about her son, who died in World War I. He wrote poems about her. There’s a whole, you know. A lot of different stories, but it was really interesting to me.
Andrew Womack: I wish I’d talked to you before I read that story, because I was struggling to get a lot out of that one.
Bryn Lerud: Yeah.
Andrew Womack: I didn’t have the context, so.
Bryn Lerud: Yeah.
Andrew Womack: It didn’t land for me—that one didn’t land for me, because I think it was that I didn’t know enough here. Now I’m gonna reread that one.
Bryn Lerud: Yeah, do, yeah, read up on.
Andrew Womack: OK, yeah, that wouldn’t.
Bryn Lerud: And Colm Tóibín wrote a nonfiction book about Lady Gregory, too. That I haven’t read. But it’s cool.
Andrew Womack: That’s very cool.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Well, thanks so much for sharing, Bryn. I know personally, as a column TV fan, he writes a lot for the London Review of Books, if anyone’s ever looking for his non-fiction. OK, Lauren is up next. Lauren, favorite story?
Lauren Oertel: It’s not a clear winner for me, but since we are talking about the first one, that one did resonate emotionally, even without the additional context, that Bryn had. I really loved the moment. I tend to gravitate toward favorites based on, lines that just hit me the most, and I loved the part about, on page 9, she would remember him instead when he was a boy. Or a young man she was proud of. Someone brave and talented, filled with daring. His dying meant that she would no longer have to judge him. So that, to me, showed so much about the relationship and, what the mother was holding, and the relief of, having a son die, meaning you don’t have to judge him anymore, is pretty heavy. So that definitely hit me. I feel like “Summer of ’38,” was one that had a good energy. A lot of these were pretty bleak, especially “Sleep.” I reread “Sleep” and was like. Dang. Wow, this is, and I do wonder how interconnected they are, because so many of them are about a brother’s death. Right. So I was curious about that link. But other than that, there were a few others that had some things that, stood out, including “A Free Man,” but I come from, abolition organizing background, so getting into the stuff of, what do we do with the people who have done the most horrendous things, is pretty interesting to me, and he’s clearly getting at that with his stories about with protagonists who do some things we wish they wouldn’t.
Andrew Womack: He’s like.
Lauren Oertel: I just appreciate that type of writing and exploration.
Andrew Womack: I’m trying to remember “Sleep.” They are bleak, though—there’s definitely—which one was “Sleep”? Can you remind me what—
Lauren Oertel: “Sleep” was pretty light on plot, other than it was, two men in a relationship, and one of them saying, we can’t keep doing this, you’re having these nightmares, you gotta go talk to a psychiatrist, and he flies to Ireland, to do that, but then that’s kind of it. Yeah, it’s just very sad.
Andrew Womack: There’s this fading in and fading out of the stories a lot—you’re kind of filtering in, getting the details, and it’s uncovering more and more, and then it’s like—and then we journeyed up the mountain. “Five Bridges” is another one I thought was very atmospheric like that, where you’re kind of getting these details about the person and their relationships and their past, and then it just kind of fades out. Fade to black.
Lauren Oertel: Well, same for me with “Barton Springs,” when I saw that, of course, I perked up, oh my goodness, an Irish author, sitting in Austin, and then it was just so short, I wanted more, but anyway.
Andrew Womack: Yeah, I was looking forward to the cannonball.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Well, Lauren, thank you. Moving on to Kate M. Kate, I believe you have read this entire book. Does that sound accurate?
Kate M: That would be accurate, all the stories, and I will say that I agree with the characterization of bleak. It was kind of As I was looking for a story to recommend to Peggy. Which of these is perhaps least leak. Was sort of my criteria. I have to say that the story I liked best was “The Catalan Girls.” The novelette, which you, I think, Andrew, had thought could have been done better as a short story, or something with less space to it. And for me, the space in that was really the joy, because you got to see the three very different people, and the more I looked at it, the more I saw the similarities between them, that each of them was trapped Basically, they needed someone else to make a life. So Nuria found a rich husband, Conchita I’m not sure how to say that name. The middle sister wound up in sort of a lesbian affair, where she was theoretically a housemaid, but really was part of the family, and the third, girl who had the worst life, in my opinion, wound up being a mistress a couple of times, and then finally trying to scrape for survival in her aunt’s house, which she was sort of nefariously taking by, once again, pretending to be the older sister so she could get the pension. So it was a lot about, I felt. People who had been pulled into an environment where They really weren’t equipped to survive or to make it on their own, and so they were using the tools that they had. To build a life. And so there was something that was rather appealing to me, and I liked the length of the story to give us that kind of an arc.
Andrew Womack: That would definitely have been my second—“The Catalan Girls.” I felt like I learned something in it about their travels and the different environments they were in, and how they switched between Spanish and Catalan in their conversations with people. And the mother, how she was trying to set them up for success, but really just set up the oldest one, and then let the other two see where the chips may fall. I really liked it. I like that you say that about the space, because I think we talked a little bit about this last time—the difference between the novel experience versus the short story experience, and really being able to steep yourself in it. I don’t know, it was maybe the rhythm of it—after all these quick hits with the short stories, I wasn’t prepared for 90 pages, you know? So it was kind of a shift, but I think it was a welcome shift. Overall, yeah, I can see what you mean.
Kate M: And for me, I have to say, the one line that really stuck out, being truly horrifying, was from “A Free Man,” where you sort of maybe don’t know how bad this is until he says. I’m just sorry I was caught. And the other person’s reaction is That it was a truly honest statement.
Andrew Womack: Yes.
Kate M: That’s at the end.
Andrew Womack: Right?
Kate M: That was pretty horrifying, although we didn’t see any of the horrifying details on the page, it made it clear that Not quite at the end, because at the end, he’s facing the countrymen who recognize him. And it’s going to basically pretend to speak Spanish and just walk out with his head held high. Which was, I thought, an interesting place to leave that one.
Andrew Womack: I’m so glad you mentioned that line, because that was devastating. It left little up to the imagination, right? This person is unrepentant, and there’s nothing about this character that’s redeeming at that point. Even though it seems like you’re kind of being asked to maybe give this person the benefit of the doubt, a little bit—it just—oof.
Kate M: Yeah. So thank you.
Andrew Womack: What was that in the chat I just saw? What was it about that line?
Rosecrans Baldwin: Alright, Lauren was talking about how the author’s pushing boundaries.
Andrew Womack: Yeah.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Yeah. Meanwhile, as someone who did not read this book, as you guys know, Andrew and I are alternating reading the books, and the other one sort of playing emcee, so on the lighter side of things, all I’m thinking about right now is that moment in Sex and the City, when that guy breaks up with the Carrie character and leaves a post-it note, behind, and that I cannot get the exact language of in my head right now, but anyway, that is trivial, and here we are with Tristan. Hi, Tristan. Tell me about where you went with this book, and favorite story.
Tristan Bullington: Well, I overall didn’t love this collection. I had two that I were my standouts, and my favorite was “A Free Man.” It was because it was such a complex emotional rollercoaster of a story, where you realize early on that he’s a sex offender, and he did something bad, but It’s sort of, suggested that maybe he should be forgiven, and it’s been too hard, and You just get this feeling where you feel almost sympathetic for the protagonist, and then you reach that scene where he’s just sad that he got caught, and that’s the only reason he’s sad, and you’re like, oh, now I regret the emotions I had earlier. We’re feeling bad for this guy, and It’s just I haven’t seen an author tackle something like that so well, where we had about as unlikable a protagonist as you can get, and still evoke some feelings of sympathy for them. So I thought that was good, you know. Just seeing the way this guy really had it made, where he had enough money, he could live, he was living somewhere nice, and for the most part, avoiding the consequences of his actions, it was yeah, I liked it. My second was “The Catalan Girls.” Again, I think all of the characters and all of the stories were morally ambiguous at best. Where we got to see a lot of questionable decision-making, but I liked the youngest sister being like, yeah, I’m gonna quit my job, and I’m gonna sabotage the computers, and Screw you, I’m gonna go, steal my sister’s identity and go back home. I like those two. The others I thought, were just pointless, for the most part. Nothing significant happened, they weren’t They didn’t explore that exciting of concepts. I will say “Summer of ’38” was probably number 3, but the rest of them for the “Barton Springs,” I wrote, a guy drives in Texas. Now you don’t have to read it, Rosecrans.
Andrew Womack: I think it was a lot of discomfort with “A Free Man,” for sure, and intentionally—the idea you’re talking about, where the rug is kind of pulled out from under you. I was in this story hoping that maybe there was something redeeming there, and I don’t know, maybe I was angry at the story—which means it’s effective, right? It means it’s actually good that it did that. I just wish it had done it with something that made me feel better. Just wanted to feel good.
Rosecrans Baldwin: OK, well, awesome. Thank you, Tristan. Amanda, hi! Talk to me about your feelings regarding the news from Dublin.
Amanda Prokop: I did want to point out, but I also did like “Summer of ’38,” but I wanted to point out that Rudolfo was 100% a fascist. And I think and, reading between the lines, why the protagonist in that story did what she did with bringing the daughter there and then choosing not to, there is the undercurrent of the fact that this dude was a fascist. That we, you just gotta keep that in mind as you read that story as to why she might not want her to know who her dad was. Because of everything that happened in the decades in between. I think the most effective story for me was, the “Five Bridges” with the Irish illegal immigrant? Who knows that when he to go home, he can never get back to see his daughter again, and that is the goodbye trip with the daughter. And all the adults know, but I don’t think the daughter does. And just reading that story? And the way that it ends, he knows, but I don’t really think the daughter fully understood. Everything that was going on. That would have been find that one sad, and I really wasn’t a fan of the, novella. At the end, I did think it went on a little too long. Like, you already got to the point, the oldest daughter’s a bitch. I don’t need to see any more of, to get the story. Moving along, maybe a little bit maybe tighten it up towards the end, but I do have to, I love that the youngest sister, the one that put up with all the crap. From her older sister and her mother. Steals her identity, and Gets to live in the house!
Andrew Womack: It went a lot further than I thought it would when she stole the passport—or rather, when she registered. Oh my god. I think something about “Five Bridges” that I did like was that it definitely—when was that one written? Does anyone know? Because it felt pretty current, given everything with immigration, and the two stories you mentioned are definitely very 2026—fascists, immigration, America 250, everybody. Oh, there you go—2025! OK, yeah, there we go. “Five Bridges” was pretty heartbreaking. Again, I was sort of stuck in that kind of rhythm of them all working in the same way. But I want to know—do you recall in “Summer of ’38” what we would have known about Rudolfo that would tell us which side he was fighting on? Did we really—
Amanda Prokop: The fact that it begins with him being a retired government official.
Andrew Womack: OK.
Amanda Prokop: That’s what clued me in on him being a fascist, since the fascists won, and Franco was, head of the country until the 70s. So if he’s a retired government official, that means he was a fascist. If he was on the other side, he would not have been a retired government official.
Andrew Womack: OK, alright. It’s definitely a side of the story that—yeah, I didn’t pick up on the fascist side of it as much. I don’t know, I’m just here for the love story, I guess.
Peggy M: Oh, let’s see.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Awesome. Well, thanks, Amanda, appreciate it. So as someone who routinely, almost daily, gets his name pronounced wrong, seeing “Ceane,” help me, please.
Ceane Willis:[pronounces “Sean!”]
Rosecrans Baldwin: Ceane, wonderful. Ceane, what’d you think of this book?
Ceane Willis: That’s good. Well Overall, I think the bleakness kind of got to me, and I kept kind of wanting more. Like, especially with the one about the pedophile, “A Free Man,” I kept wondering, sort of what was going on in his head, and we kept getting these details, we got a good sense of him. From one perspective, but I was wondering, what was he thinking when he decided to quit the seminary, for example, or what was going on With him internally, when he was, just doing everything, all of his different behaviors. But the one I actually liked best was the first one, “The Journey to Galway.” And I think it was because I really responded to that personally. Right after I had read it, I happened to read George Saunders’ Substack, and he was talking about this idea of shadow stories, and it’s the idea that, writers often will take an iconic kind of situation And as a reader, we kind of bring up our own situation that’s similar to that, and use that as a way of assessing whether the story feels real, And this whole idea of a before and an after in somebody’s life, finding out that kind of news. And I think for me, my father died in Vietnam, OK? So I can just remember that actual experience of finding that out, somebody coming, giving that information, and then it being such a before and an after, and being such an iconic event in someone’s life. I thought he captured that. Really well. And also, there were just, a lot of other similarities, just like World War I, Vietnam, both wars where I feel like, just so many people got killed needlessly. It was a an air accident for in both situations. So yeah, that’s so I think the reason that one felt so much more filled in to me was because I was bringing so many of my own experiences.
Andrew Womack: I know, for me—yeah, the stories are all bleak, but god, they do touch you personally. I think there’s a rawness, a bleakness that’s almost—it’s hardly escapist. This is non-escapist literature. You won’t escape, you know? And there’s something about what you’re mentioning, feeling touched personally by the story. I feel like they’re all tapping at either deep-seated human truths or fears, and there’s a discomfort in that way. I could talk about Louise Erdich and all the escapism there—it’s so fantastical, truly escapist. These stories, in some ways, ask you to confront things about yourself, or fears you may have. I’m just gonna go back to “Summer of ’38” and talk about, for me personally, Paco and his neurodivergence—my son is autistic, and it really felt like you’re rooting for the person who deserves something more, who deserves to not just be ignored or be the butt of jokes, as Paco was in the story. So that one just gripped me personally, probably because of that. Talking very personally about these stories, it’s that kinship with Paco that I felt, and why I was so in love with the story—I wanted him to succeed, and I wanted people to give him the respect and the love and the adoration that he deserved, as a human. I think in a lot of the stories, they’re touching on things that are maybe a little so personally uncomfortable that they succeed—like Tristan was talking about with “A Free Man”—they succeed in the way that they’re just too true and too real. And I don’t know if I can handle that much reality. It’s so hard to do this every day, that curling up in bed with a book at night and being faced with that much bleakness—it’s like, I wanna go explore Louise Erdich’s afterlife explorations, her fun tales there. So I guess that means I’m a Colm Tóibín fan now, and I’ve never read any of his stuff before, but I guess I’m terrified to ever read anything he’s ever written again.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Well, Ceane, thank you. Bryn, I just saw noticed a hand raised from you before we get into the general discussion, yeah.
Bryn Lerud: I just wanted to add on “A Free Man,” which it was horribly uncomfortable to read it, to be in the head of a pedophile, but the other way that he, sort of made you sympathize with him is that there were hints that he’d been sexually abused by the priests at his school, which was really common in Ireland for a while. And that, hurt people. And that made me sympathize with him, just A teeny bit.
Andrew Womack: I didn’t see that detail in there—there’s a lot of detail in this book. I see Kate in the chat talking about spending two weeks with this—oh, well, parse it out with more cheerful books. I thought it was about details, so apparently I didn’t read your comment correctly. But yeah, I think I could have—certainly peppered it in with something more fun than this. I think that’s a good idea.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Well, we’ve got about 10 or 15 minutes left, so, just to throw this open for general commentary, but, anyone, how is the summer going when reading more short stories than usual? I assume for a lot of people, or definitely me, any thoughts of this in light of reading Brawler by Lauren Groff? Any broad strokes about this book, generally speaking? Andrew, while I throw those questions out there to the group, how do you land with this book? When you put it down. I don’t know, what’s your broad take on it?
Andrew Womack: I wish I’d had a sister who would have recommended the one story I could have read in this—some loved one who might have said, yo, just read this one. Because, god, we’re all touching on it, but there’s such a bleakness that I really didn’t miss it by the end. And you’re all reminding me, at the end of “The Catalan Girls,” it is pretty joyful. As a whole collection, in this order, it ends on a high note—an absolute hilarious note, where the youngest sister wins, you know? She’s definitely got her ally in the middle sister, and her nemesis in the oldest sister. But it ends on a comedic, fun note, where you can see she’s won it all at the end. She only had to engage in a little bit of bad behavior, but ultimately you’re rooting for her the whole time, because she doesn’t do anything so horrible—her sister’s identity definitely deserved to be stolen. So as a whole, it ended on a really bright note. But so much of it just reminded me, OK, well, I’m gonna die, you know?
Rosecrans Baldwin: Hardcore, OK, well.
Andrew Womack: It’s like, OK.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Since the sister, Kate M, got invoked, we’re gonna sort of script the chronology, but then we’ll go to Amanda, Judy, and Lauren, but Kate, thoughts about being the sister, just, recommending stories left and right?
Kate M: Peggy and I read very different things generally, so when I have a collection like this, I really agonize over, OK, now, which is the story that Peggy would like best out of this collection? But it is such a joy to have someone else to read the stories with and talk them over. It’s just magical. What I did want to say about the collection as a whole was that an awful lot of it seemed to be about people working within a system where they were lacking power, and doing things in a way to try and get a result. That didn’t always wind up [lost audio] what they wanted. The AI chose to poke its nose in and tell me that this was a beautiful sentiment to express. Which was very strange when my headphones started talking to me, and not helpful.
Rosecrans Baldwin: That is hilarious. What if the AI is actually Kay’s perfectly spherical cat, and it’s just, throwing out comments? I don’t know how it got to your headphones, but OK. Wow.
Andrew Womack: Did I invite an AI? Is there one in here? I’m so sorry—if there is one, it wasn’t me.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Did you let an AI Did someone send their agent? To our conversation? That’s how.
Tristan Bullington: We’re getting a transcript, Andrew. You have an AI transcript creator in here.
Rosecrans Baldwin: God damn it.
Andrew Womack: Is that?
Kate M: So.
Andrew Womack: What that is.
Kate M: So sort of people who were in powerless positions struggling to try and make them better, like the story in, the Dublin where they were trying to manipulate the system to get the drug, the kid who was poor in the school and trying to survive. So many of these were about people who were making bad choices to try and get out of bad situations. And they didn’t work. Whereas, I would kind of like to see them work sometimes. That’s it for me.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Kate, I hear what you’re saying, completely agree, and I wish this AI had not been the solution we had chosen for transcription, who’s suddenly, throwing comments left and right. Andrew, we have to have a meeting later. I don’t know, man. Just kidding, I’m throwing Andrew on the bus. This is very funny. Amanda, hi.
Amanda Prokop: Well, you talk about it in general, I am enjoying the short story collections, because I do find short stories to be the best pool and beach reading. If you read a story. There you go, and you yep. Read a story, go have some fun in the water, come back, read the next story take a walk, I’m enjoying it, or quick little story of my lunch break. They’re also a great way for me to read some literature while I am mainlining romance novels, too, so read a story, then go back to the romance novel. It’s been a good summer reading so far for me.
Andrew Womack: Have you read ahead at all?
Amanda Prokop: I’ve done the Louise Erdrich, and I’m, halfway through the My Dear You.
Andrew Womack: The Erdich.
Amanda Prokop: Yeah.
Andrew Womack: Yeah. It’s gonna be good.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Cool! OK, well, thanks, Amanda. Judy, hi. Hey.
Judy Morris: Well, “A Free Man” was my favorite story, and it may be it’s because I’m used to Tóibín. I’ve read everything, practically, that he’s written, and he’s gotta bring this Irish pain. To his books, and to his, and to his stories, but the thing that he does is that he makes you think. And I’m trying to remember the his last novel was I think it was Long Island, and he, that one just led to so much discussion in various book clubs. And in fact, I was in the hospital when I read it, and I would ask the nurses what they would do with the situation, there was a baby born, and the husband brings home the baby and says to his wife. You need to raise this baby for me. I had this baby with the neighbor, and the neighbor doesn’t want it, and should the wife take in the baby? And people talked about it, and it was a great topic of conversation, so I think that if I had to compare the Tóibín with the, Lauren Groff, He just brings more to the table. Not that I don’t like the, the brawler. I thought those stories were excellent. I just think that this is maybe a step above. So thank you.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Great, thank you. Thanks, Judy. Lauren. What are we thinking?
Lauren Oertel: Yeah, so I guess generally, although kind of the reverse of what Judy just mentioned, Brawler, I enjoyed, both of these. I attended to mostly read on audio, and there’s a reason it’s very difficult to read short story collections on audio that I’ll get to in a second. But Brawler, I had to reread everything, but after our conversation, it bumped it from a 4 star to 4.5, which I round up to 5, so just, the way that we dug into it helped me appreciate it even more. This one, there weren’t quite as many moments of it doesn’t, have to be lighthearted or happy or anything like that, but, we stayed pretty dark, for a lot longer, and I think it didn’t bring quite as much to the table as Brawler did, but I have read ahead to Python’s Kiss, and that’s probably gonna be my favorite. Warning, though, to animal lovers, which is probably most of us, the heavy stuff is related to animals in that one, but otherwise, there, really is a lot of fun, and just, yeah, kind of playful stuff with that. So I was at the, Writers League of Texas Agents and Editors Conference this past weekend, and a lot the industry probably has always, but now especially, is saying it’s so hard to sell short story collections. And there was, in one of the sessions, there was a writer next to me who wants to publish a short story collection, and she’s like, but, I keep being told this is impossible, and I was like, well, I have something hopeful for you. There’s this entity called the Tournament of Books, and we are focusing on short stories this summer, and It really did, brighten her day, after she had just heard multiple editors say, oh yeah, we have to keep we keep getting pressure to stop, accepting short story collections because they’re just so hard to sell, so Thanks to all of us, they got a little boost, this summer, and mostly by pretty darn famous authors, already, not necessarily debuts, but, we’re keeping it alive a little bit, so But quick thing on why it’s so tough to read these. Through audio, and yet I keep trying just because of how limited my print reading time is. And this is a part of the industry challenge, as well, is there’s really separation in the very literary writing, which is more of the litmag world. They want your super crafty, creative, fancy writing. And then there’s, the novel industry and, kind of more, traditional, publishing of books. And short stories try to break that open. Like, there yes, there are literary, fiction literary novels that do very well, but that window keeps getting shorter, smaller as well. Like, everything in the industry, they’re like, ugh, it’s really hard to sell literary. You gotta blend it with something, or be upmarket, or, different genres, and that type of thing. So short stories are essentially taking from one industry what they really love, these really juicy, beautiful, writing that’s gonna be lower on plot and commercial appeal. And they’re saying, let’s, publish this traditional way. So it’s tough, and it’s harder to follow on audio when you don’t have a long, time to settle in. And I wish, and I appreciate with Brawler, I wish that every short story had, a little a blurb where we could get the overall picture of it, and then just know what we’re headed into would help keep track of everything better, but.
Rosecrans Baldwin: That was a really cool feature. I hope other authors pick that up, too. Sorry, Andrew, go ahead.
Andrew Womack: Oh, I was gonna ask, so you listened to Python’s Kiss? You did audio for it?
Lauren Oertel: I did dual format for all three of these, but this came late, it came yesterday, so I had to do pretty much all this on audio, and then just kind of flip through and mark what I marked on audio. Python’s Kiss, I did mostly audio, but then also some reading the print.
Andrew Womack: For anyone in a couple of weeks who’s gonna be joining us—the artwork, yeah, the artwork in Python’s Kiss really adds a whole extra dimension. It’s really cool.
Lauren Oertel: That don’.
Andrew Womack: Her daughter.
Lauren Oertel: Anyone who gets a chance to go to Minneapolis, definitely go to Louise Erdrich’s family bookstore. You’ll likely meet one or more of her daughters, get to see the stuff. Yeah, it’s great.
Rosecrans Baldwin: So many authors these days having bookstores. It is a good thing. OK, great, thank you. And just, Kay, I’m gonna call on you in one second. I just want to point out, Judy, if you have an additional comment to make, leave your hand up there like it is, but it’s up there, so I’m not.
Judy Morris: Sorry.
Rosecrans Baldwin: No, it’s OK, you’re good. Tristan, you sent up a hand emoji, but it wasn’t the raise hand button, so I’m assuming you do have something to say, but, I will come to you in a second. Kay, hi, your cat is spherical. What’s going on? Are we worried? Is it a concern?
Kay Hardtmann: I just wanted to thank you for, my summer of short stories. This is great. That’s my favorite I guess, form of reading is the short story. These little concentrated bursts of story. Oh. And so I’m kind of extending that to reading more short stories and reading, Emily Ruskovich’s Nightjar right now. Which is excellent. She did Idaho, which was in the Tournament of Books.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Yep.
Kay Hardtmann: A couple years ago, and people seemed to like that one. And then, also, because I came in late, I just want to say my favorite story in this collection was the first one. Which kind of quietly made the point that even though they were very sorry this guy died. He was kind of a jerk, and probably everybody’s better off with him not there anymore. But in very subtle ways, I just really That’s mine. Because Tóibín is so good at being Extremely subtle, to the point of often nothing happening in the stories at all, it feels like. Stuff is happening in the background.
Andrew Womack: I love that you’re taking the short stories further. I didn’t know we had so many short story fans. We should just—we should switch. Tournament of—tournament—
Bryn Lerud: Short story.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Jesus Christ!
Andrew Womack: No hands, who’s in?
Rosecrans Baldwin: Let’s make a—
Andrew Womack: Snap decision.
Rosecrans Baldwin: You are drunk on bad thinking, I don’t know what’s going on right now. This is not a tournament of short story collections, I refuse.
Andrew Womack: Pivot.
Rosecrans Baldwin: You did throw up a hand, are you keeping up a hand, or is the hand down?
Tristan Bullington: The hand was going up, and I tried to put it down, because Lauren made the same point I was about to make, so we are good.
Andrew Womack: OK.
Rosecrans Baldwin: Any final comments, before we send you off into your evenings? If not, if so, thank you so much for joining us again. We’re gonna see you in two weeks, where we’re gonna be talking about My Dear You by Rachel Kong, more short stories to get us through the summer heat waves. Andrew, any final comments?
Andrew Womack: Just thank you all for reading along. Looking forward to seeing you in two weeks, and for the remainder of these—I think this has been a lot of fun, and I know I’m getting a lot out of it personally. I just want to add that it’s great to actually be connecting with a lot of you, since we only ever see your comments, and then we approve them. So I only ever know any of you from the comments section, so it’s really wonderful to be able to put faces to voices. It’s great.
Rosecrans Baldwin: I know, imagine if we could find out what their handles were, it would be insanity. That’s a conversation for another time. OK, well, everyone, have a nice evening, we’ll see you in two weeks. Thank you very much. Bye-bye!