The Quick and the Dead

A collection of the finest stories from the Irish author of The Dirty Dust, published fifty years after his death


These colorful tales from renowned Irish author Máirtín Ó Cadhain (1906–1970) whisk readers to the salty western shores of Ireland, where close-knit farming communities follow the harsh rhythms of custom, family, and land, even as they dream together of a kinder world. In this collection, the resilient women and men of the Gaeltacht regions struggle toward self-realization against the brutal pressures of rural poverty, and later, the hollowing demands of modern city life.


Weaving together tradition and modernity, and preserving the earthy cadence of the original language, this rich and heart-rending collection by one of Ireland’s most acclaimed fiction writers is a composite portrait of a country poised at the edge of irreversible transformation.