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The Shortest Day
In Ireland, a man of reason is drawn to a true mystery older than the Pyramids and Stonehenge in this enthralling story about ethereal secrets by New York Times bestselling author Colm Tóibín.
During the winter solstice, on the shortest day and longest night of the year, the ancient burial chamber at Newgrange is empowered. Its mystifying source is a haunting tale told by locals.
Professor O’Kelly believes an archaeologist’s job is to make known only what can be proved. He is undeterred by ghost stories, idle speculation, and caution. Much to the chagrin of the living souls in County Meath. As well as those entombed in the sacred darkness of Newgrange itself. They’re determined to protect the secret of the light, guarded for more than five thousand years. And they know O’Kelly is coming for it.
During the winter solstice, on the shortest day and longest night of the year, the ancient burial chamber at Newgrange is empowered. Its mystifying source is a haunting tale told by locals.
Professor O’Kelly believes an archaeologist’s job is to make known only what can be proved. He is undeterred by ghost stories, idle speculation, and caution. Much to the chagrin of the living souls in County Meath. As well as those entombed in the sacred darkness of Newgrange itself. They’re determined to protect the secret of the light, guarded for more than five thousand years. And they know O’Kelly is coming for it.
31 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 3, 2020
About the author
Colm Tóibín
214 books4,370 followersColm Tóibín FRSL, is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and poet. Tóibín is currently Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University in Manhattan and succeeded Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 336 reviews
October 23, 2022
A wee gem from Colm Toibin set at the Winter Solstice. An archaeologist visits an ancient site in Ireland where spirits from the past reside.
October 21, 2020
This is a wonderfully atmospheric short story from Colm Toibin set in Ireland, featuring a man of reason and logic, who puts his faith in facts and evidence, entertaining no speculations or fantasies, the archaeologist Professor O'Kelly from Cork. He is writing his notes on a passage tomb from the Neolithic period around 3200BC on a site above the River Boyne at Newgrange. Over time, he has become obsessive about the sacred burial chamber, taking down every small detail and drawings of the carvings of spirals and lines. Despite his logical persona, something within him feels the complexity and a great presence within the chamber, and in the days before Christmas travels there, planning to stay at a hotel and go to the burial chamber. Some locals harbour knowledge of the secrets of the winter solstice but keep their silence of the mysteries of the dead and the dead whisper among themselves. O'Kelly finds himself facing obstacle after obstacle, will he become privy to ancient secrets? Many thanks to Amazon Original Stories for an ARC.
January 27, 2021
Illumination
Let me tell you about an ancient monument at Brú na Bóinne near Drogheda, Ireland, about 50 miles from where I live, called Newgrange. The monument is a large dome structure, built with stone that was carried from up to one hundred miles away, each shaped, and placed with precision to maintain a roof, covered in grass, that remained intact and waterproof since 3200 BC (well that’s a wishful extrapolation. Anyway, it has remained watertight when the visitors centre hasn’t). There is one passageway that leads from the entrance to a central chamber with three altars and many carved spiral images chiselled into the stone. The amazing aspect of this building is that it is 5200 years old, pre-dating the Great Pyramids and Stonehenge. Above the entrance is a small window called a roof-box and the remarkable objective of this feature is that it is part of the construction that enables a unique event to happen once per year, where on the morning of the winter solstice, The Shortest Day, the sun’s rays align perfectly to shine directly through the roof-box, down the passageway and illuminate the dark chamber in an awesome sight. I have visited Newgrange a number of times and I’m blown away by the unbelievable geometry of the place, how ancient farmers constructed a monument that perfectly designed a dome and passageway, taking into account elevation, angles and astronomy.
Colm Tóibín has crafted a beautiful tale centred on Newgrange where the spirits of the past remain in the dark and talk through the stories Dalc would bring them, being the only spirit amongst them that could wander in the world. They agreed to always tell the truth, even with the things they made up. More than anything they looked forward to the shortest day of the year, for the sun to bring light to their world and remind them of the lives they once had.
An archaeologist, Professor Michael O’Kelly has a fascination with the Newgrange site and intends visiting it in the week before Christmas, around 21st December - The Shortest Day. The spirits know he’s coming and while gentle in nature, they try to block and delay him getting to the site to witness the illumination phenomenon.
A precious short story from a master storyteller who weaves much of the factual details with a compelling supernatural tale that has us imagining wildly the awesome history of the place. The lives that were impacted either building the burial chamber or buried there remind us what was achieved stretching so far into our past. On a historical note, it was Prof Michael O’Kelly who was the first in modern times to witness the illumination event in 1967.
Let me tell you about an ancient monument at Brú na Bóinne near Drogheda, Ireland, about 50 miles from where I live, called Newgrange. The monument is a large dome structure, built with stone that was carried from up to one hundred miles away, each shaped, and placed with precision to maintain a roof, covered in grass, that remained intact and waterproof since 3200 BC (well that’s a wishful extrapolation. Anyway, it has remained watertight when the visitors centre hasn’t). There is one passageway that leads from the entrance to a central chamber with three altars and many carved spiral images chiselled into the stone. The amazing aspect of this building is that it is 5200 years old, pre-dating the Great Pyramids and Stonehenge. Above the entrance is a small window called a roof-box and the remarkable objective of this feature is that it is part of the construction that enables a unique event to happen once per year, where on the morning of the winter solstice, The Shortest Day, the sun’s rays align perfectly to shine directly through the roof-box, down the passageway and illuminate the dark chamber in an awesome sight. I have visited Newgrange a number of times and I’m blown away by the unbelievable geometry of the place, how ancient farmers constructed a monument that perfectly designed a dome and passageway, taking into account elevation, angles and astronomy.
Colm Tóibín has crafted a beautiful tale centred on Newgrange where the spirits of the past remain in the dark and talk through the stories Dalc would bring them, being the only spirit amongst them that could wander in the world. They agreed to always tell the truth, even with the things they made up. More than anything they looked forward to the shortest day of the year, for the sun to bring light to their world and remind them of the lives they once had.
“They basked in its glistening glory, knowing that it would soon disappear. The light carried hope into the burial chamber; it invoked the memory of what life had been. It reminded them of a time when the sun, in all its purity and beauty, had lit up the world for them.”But it was their secret and while they had shared this secret with the locals it had remained hidden for generations. The locals had respected this moment of majestic beauty and left it for the spirits to relish in private.
An archaeologist, Professor Michael O’Kelly has a fascination with the Newgrange site and intends visiting it in the week before Christmas, around 21st December - The Shortest Day. The spirits know he’s coming and while gentle in nature, they try to block and delay him getting to the site to witness the illumination phenomenon.
A precious short story from a master storyteller who weaves much of the factual details with a compelling supernatural tale that has us imagining wildly the awesome history of the place. The lives that were impacted either building the burial chamber or buried there remind us what was achieved stretching so far into our past. On a historical note, it was Prof Michael O’Kelly who was the first in modern times to witness the illumination event in 1967.
December 21, 2022
✧･ﾟToday is....The Shortest Day!･ﾟ✧
Part history, part spooky with holiday vibes.
This is a short story that centers around archaeology Professor O’Kelly from Cork and spirits who reside in a 3200BC tomb. O’Kelly visits this prehistoric burial site called Newgrange on the shortest day of the year. A fascinating setting, I youtube to see what the tomb looks like on Dec. 21st. 🤩
This is the kind of story that left me wondering if I understand it right. But I enjoyed the tone of it if that makes any sense. 3.5⭐
36 pages/1h 6m free with Prime/KU
Part history, part spooky with holiday vibes.
This is a short story that centers around archaeology Professor O’Kelly from Cork and spirits who reside in a 3200BC tomb. O’Kelly visits this prehistoric burial site called Newgrange on the shortest day of the year. A fascinating setting, I youtube to see what the tomb looks like on Dec. 21st. 🤩
This is the kind of story that left me wondering if I understand it right. But I enjoyed the tone of it if that makes any sense. 3.5⭐
36 pages/1h 6m free with Prime/KU
December 5, 2021
So this is a little awkward.
I listened to the audiobook of this short story twice yesterday and really had no connection with it whatsoever. When my first go round ended I felt like I missed something, so I listened again. And here I am still drawing a blank.
As a seasonal reader, I had it marked to pick up in December since "The Shortest Day" is in reference to the shortest day of the year during the Winter Solstice... in December. But it's not holly or jolly or anything like that. It's about archaeology and ghosts. Who knew?
Apparently a lot of other reviewers enjoyed the story for what it was. Please give those a looksee if you like to read stories set in December in December even if they don't have Christmas vibes. The Shortest Day is available as part of the Kindle Unlimited program and includes WhisperSync for those who prefer the audiobook format.
I listened to the audiobook of this short story twice yesterday and really had no connection with it whatsoever. When my first go round ended I felt like I missed something, so I listened again. And here I am still drawing a blank.
As a seasonal reader, I had it marked to pick up in December since "The Shortest Day" is in reference to the shortest day of the year during the Winter Solstice... in December. But it's not holly or jolly or anything like that. It's about archaeology and ghosts. Who knew?
Apparently a lot of other reviewers enjoyed the story for what it was. Please give those a looksee if you like to read stories set in December in December even if they don't have Christmas vibes. The Shortest Day is available as part of the Kindle Unlimited program and includes WhisperSync for those who prefer the audiobook format.
November 14, 2020
A superbly written novella set during the Winter Solstice at Newgrange, an archeological jewel in Ireland. I loved the way the past and the present interconnect and are bound by the secrets. Another grand offering by the Author whose writing I follow and enjoy.
*Many thanks to Colm Toibin, Amazon Original Stories, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
*Many thanks to Colm Toibin, Amazon Original Stories, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
October 24, 2020
4 "science meets spirit" stars !
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Amazon Original stories for an e-copy of this short story in exchange for my honest review. The publication date is November 2020 and it took me about twenty five minutes to read this story.
Professor O'Kelley is an archaeologist, a man of science who studies with joy and enthusiasm what is in front of him and does not make inferences about the ancient burial tomb and culture that he has studied for many years in rural Ireland. There are whisperings of spirits that await the winter solstice and an Irish family try to...
This is not an eerie tale but a delightful tale of the contemporary world meeting the ancient world and the results that transpires.
This is my first read of Mr. Coibin and I was impressed with the feeling of awe that can be had equally whether dealing with the precision of science or the nebulousness of spirituality.
A wonderful Christmas story !
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Amazon Original stories for an e-copy of this short story in exchange for my honest review. The publication date is November 2020 and it took me about twenty five minutes to read this story.
Professor O'Kelley is an archaeologist, a man of science who studies with joy and enthusiasm what is in front of him and does not make inferences about the ancient burial tomb and culture that he has studied for many years in rural Ireland. There are whisperings of spirits that await the winter solstice and an Irish family try to...
This is not an eerie tale but a delightful tale of the contemporary world meeting the ancient world and the results that transpires.
This is my first read of Mr. Coibin and I was impressed with the feeling of awe that can be had equally whether dealing with the precision of science or the nebulousness of spirituality.
A wonderful Christmas story !
November 14, 2023
In a Nutshell: An appealing standalone short story set in Ireland, focussing on an archaeologist-professor who might be close to the biggest discovery of his career. Well-written, with a great combination of realism and fantasy. Enjoyable!
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Story Synopsis:
Considering my lengthy synopsis, it might be tough to accept that this is just a 31-page standalone short story. Despite its short length, it packs a lot in!
I liked most of the main characters, though the professor’s taken-for-granted attitude towards his wife was annoying. This lack of perfection makes him more human, and hence adds depth to the story. The characters of County Meath, both the living and the dead, are also interesting in their limited roles. The spirits are eclectic in their personalities, and strangely curious about the present, while still obsessed by the past.
I also loved the archaeological perspective of the professor. The way he repeatedly paused to consider if a tidbit could actually be a fact from the past or is just a big assumption is very interestingly written.
It is surprising to see just how many characters are a part of this short work, and yet, the number doesn’t get overwhelming, making the story easy to follow. The author reveals just as much about the characters as is necessary for us to get a handle on their personality.
‘The Shortest Day’ of the title is an obvious reference to the winter solstice, a day that has a very important role to play in this tale. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Newgrange site actually exists in Northern Ireland, and that the archaeological details of this story are accurate, as is the fact about what happens there on winter solstice. I wish this had been mentioned in an afterword or author’s note itself. I stumbled on this discovery just by chance. That said, the site is apparently quite famous in Europe and the most visited archaeological monument in Ireland, so my being a complete outsider worked against me here.
Though the story is set around Christmas, it is not Christmassy in the holly-jolly sense. However, the ending left me with a smile on my face and warmth in my heart. In that sense, it is a good choice to read in in the holiday season.
Irish writers seem to have a knack of creating the perfect atmosphere for their stories. Through this little tale, I feel like I too explored Newgrange and County Meath. This is my first work by this author, and seeing how invested I was in this story from start to end, I am definitely going to check out his other works.
On the flip side, the story is clearly historical but the time period it is set in isn’t mentioned anywhere. The story incorporates several facts and real people, so a brief glimpse about the author’s inspiration behind this story would have been fascinating to read.
Definitely recommended, for both the characters and the beautiful combination of past and present.
4.25 stars.
This standalone story is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.
Fun Facts: In reality, Professor Michael O'Kelly, considered one of Ireland’s leading archaeologists, excavated and restored Newgrange from 1962 to 1975. His wife’s name was Claire, and she was an active collaborator in her husband’s work. In 1967, O’Kelly and his team were the first to experience what happens in Newgrange on winter solstice.
If you want to know more about the site, check out https://www.newgrange.com/ and https://www.authenticvacations.com/ne....
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Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Story Synopsis:
Middle-aged Professor O' Kelly is excited about his upcoming trip to the Newgrange passage tomb site, even though it is just some days to Christmas. He knows his wife Claire will handle the Christmas prep, so he can, without guilt, focus on what he loves so dedicatedly – archaeology. O’Kelly believes that an archaeologist must make know only what can be proved, and firmly refuses to speculate about historical details that rely only on hearsay or speculation.
His upcoming visit though has caused a strange unrest among two groups. One is the living people of County Meath, and the other is the souls who inhabit the historical monument. Both the living and the timeless are determined to stop O’Kelly from seeing what happens at Newgrange on the shortest day of the year. Will they succeed?
The story comes to us from the third person perspective of various characters.
Considering my lengthy synopsis, it might be tough to accept that this is just a 31-page standalone short story. Despite its short length, it packs a lot in!
I liked most of the main characters, though the professor’s taken-for-granted attitude towards his wife was annoying. This lack of perfection makes him more human, and hence adds depth to the story. The characters of County Meath, both the living and the dead, are also interesting in their limited roles. The spirits are eclectic in their personalities, and strangely curious about the present, while still obsessed by the past.
I also loved the archaeological perspective of the professor. The way he repeatedly paused to consider if a tidbit could actually be a fact from the past or is just a big assumption is very interestingly written.
It is surprising to see just how many characters are a part of this short work, and yet, the number doesn’t get overwhelming, making the story easy to follow. The author reveals just as much about the characters as is necessary for us to get a handle on their personality.
‘The Shortest Day’ of the title is an obvious reference to the winter solstice, a day that has a very important role to play in this tale. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Newgrange site actually exists in Northern Ireland, and that the archaeological details of this story are accurate, as is the fact about what happens there on winter solstice. I wish this had been mentioned in an afterword or author’s note itself. I stumbled on this discovery just by chance. That said, the site is apparently quite famous in Europe and the most visited archaeological monument in Ireland, so my being a complete outsider worked against me here.
Though the story is set around Christmas, it is not Christmassy in the holly-jolly sense. However, the ending left me with a smile on my face and warmth in my heart. In that sense, it is a good choice to read in in the holiday season.
Irish writers seem to have a knack of creating the perfect atmosphere for their stories. Through this little tale, I feel like I too explored Newgrange and County Meath. This is my first work by this author, and seeing how invested I was in this story from start to end, I am definitely going to check out his other works.
On the flip side, the story is clearly historical but the time period it is set in isn’t mentioned anywhere. The story incorporates several facts and real people, so a brief glimpse about the author’s inspiration behind this story would have been fascinating to read.
Definitely recommended, for both the characters and the beautiful combination of past and present.
4.25 stars.
This standalone story is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.
Fun Facts: In reality, Professor Michael O'Kelly, considered one of Ireland’s leading archaeologists, excavated and restored Newgrange from 1962 to 1975. His wife’s name was Claire, and she was an active collaborator in her husband’s work. In 1967, O’Kelly and his team were the first to experience what happens in Newgrange on winter solstice.
If you want to know more about the site, check out https://www.newgrange.com/ and https://www.authenticvacations.com/ne....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
December 3, 2023
With the Winter Solstice and the Christmas holidays upon us, this was the perfect time to read this enchanting short story, The Shortest Day, by Colm Toibin. In this haunting tale we are introduced to Professor O'Kelly, an archaeologist who has been exploring a mystery at Newgrange that is older than the Pyramids and Stonehenge. With Christmas gifts for his wife Clair and his two children brightly wrapped in the trunk of his car, he left County Clare just before the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, to explore an ancient mystery surrounding Newgrange in County Meath. It was rumored that on the shortest day of the year, rays of sunshine beamed into the burial chamber. Professor O'Kelly believed that the job of an archaeologist was to make known only what could be proved.
"Years before, he had made a study of the large stones that formed the outside walls of the burial chamber at Newgrange. Some of them had come from as far away as Wicklow and others from farther north."
"Those who designed and built Newgrange belonged, he thought, to the invisible past."
November 1, 2020
Real Rating: 4.75* of five
The Yule Solstice, a time of great power in Neolithic societies (if the number of archaeological sites with demonstrable connections to the Sun's position on that date is any evidence), has come to his attention as an important time at Newgrange as well. He feels duty bound, as the first archaeologist to possess this information, to investigate despite his unshakeable materialism:
The job of an archaeologist was to make known only what can be proved. The rest was idle speculation.
So two things are immediately apparent from this. First is that this is a story set in the past, as the site in its present state dates from after 1982 (see link beside the photo). Second is that there are those who know more than they have told about the site in the many years of Ireland's fussing about with it. That's very interesting....
As the tale is a short one, I don't want to give too much away. The entire review is posted at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud.
The Yule Solstice, a time of great power in Neolithic societies (if the number of archaeological sites with demonstrable connections to the Sun's position on that date is any evidence), has come to his attention as an important time at Newgrange as well. He feels duty bound, as the first archaeologist to possess this information, to investigate despite his unshakeable materialism:
The job of an archaeologist was to make known only what can be proved. The rest was idle speculation.
So two things are immediately apparent from this. First is that this is a story set in the past, as the site in its present state dates from after 1982 (see link beside the photo). Second is that there are those who know more than they have told about the site in the many years of Ireland's fussing about with it. That's very interesting....
As the tale is a short one, I don't want to give too much away. The entire review is posted at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud.
March 6, 2024
Tóibín gives us a shorter piece that muses on the significance of: stories; spirits and the march of time. At winter solstice, a patient and practiced archeologist returns to a very ancient Irish site that he has been examining for years. Though he has more “academic knowledge” of the Newgrange site than any other “expert,” his knowledge has been gained only during his summers away from the university.
Are the ancient spirits malevolent? Vengeful? Fearful? Trapped? Quarrelsome? All-knowing?
It won’t take you long to find out how the site’s spirits, the local population and Professor O’Kelly resolve “The Shortest Day.”
Are the ancient spirits malevolent? Vengeful? Fearful? Trapped? Quarrelsome? All-knowing?
It won’t take you long to find out how the site’s spirits, the local population and Professor O’Kelly resolve “The Shortest Day.”
March 7, 2022
Short story by a master. An archeologist is working at Newgrange, the burial grave and World Heritage Site in Ireland, older than Stonehenge and the pyramids. He has decided to visit the site at the winter solstice, which none in his profession has ever done. Others will be there though. None alive.
A lovely tale of dignity and respect, tolerance and promises made, among the living and the dead.
A lovely tale of dignity and respect, tolerance and promises made, among the living and the dead.
October 25, 2020
The Shortest Day......and in the scheme of things, aren't they all?
Colm Toibin's short story takes us from the presence of an Irish mist in County Meath back through time to 3200 BC. As an archaeologist, Professor O'Kelly has been enthralled by Newgrange rising above River Boyne. Ireland can readily boast of its treasure from the Neolithic Period which is older than the pyramids and even Stonehenge.
And no matter how many occasions of his skillful manuevering through its passageways, this Christmas season will be ripe to see the unseen for O'Kelly. It's the winter solstice and there is a secret wrapped in the light that may reveal itself to his aging professoring eyes. O'Kelly ponders the hierarchy of the people and their beliefs. Those who are in charge and those who simply build. Thousands of years in humankind and not much ever changes.
Toibin weaves a bit of Irish folktale and fantasy throughout this one. An Irish secret is a rough gem passed down and kept in the back pocket of many a family and many a village. And hidden as it may well be, Toibin allows the readers a glimpse of the glimmer in this very satisfying and exceptional short story. It's one for the Ages and one for the here and now.
I received a copy of The Shortest Day through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Amazon Originals and to the talented Colm Toibin for the opportunity.
Colm Toibin's short story takes us from the presence of an Irish mist in County Meath back through time to 3200 BC. As an archaeologist, Professor O'Kelly has been enthralled by Newgrange rising above River Boyne. Ireland can readily boast of its treasure from the Neolithic Period which is older than the pyramids and even Stonehenge.
And no matter how many occasions of his skillful manuevering through its passageways, this Christmas season will be ripe to see the unseen for O'Kelly. It's the winter solstice and there is a secret wrapped in the light that may reveal itself to his aging professoring eyes. O'Kelly ponders the hierarchy of the people and their beliefs. Those who are in charge and those who simply build. Thousands of years in humankind and not much ever changes.
Toibin weaves a bit of Irish folktale and fantasy throughout this one. An Irish secret is a rough gem passed down and kept in the back pocket of many a family and many a village. And hidden as it may well be, Toibin allows the readers a glimpse of the glimmer in this very satisfying and exceptional short story. It's one for the Ages and one for the here and now.
I received a copy of The Shortest Day through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Amazon Originals and to the talented Colm Toibin for the opportunity.
September 20, 2021
”In the depths of the burial chamber, there were whispers among the dead that the professor was coming again.”
Professor O’Kelly, an archaeologist from Cork, anticipated spending time over his Christmas break working at, Newgrange, a site that was older “than the Pyramids and older than Stonehenge.” He lectured on, studied, and revered Newgrange. “He often felt that he was dealing not with a ruin or a set of remnants but with a living, breathing spirit.”
In the numerous times he had visited the site, it was never “in the days before Christmas.” Freezing temperatures were not conducive to outdoor field work. He previously brought students and colleagues along with him, but this time he relished working undisturbed despite the cold.
Dalc, the only one among the dead with the ability to leave the chamber and move about in the world, warns “he will be here for the winter solstice unless he can be stopped.”
Meanwhile, Dilly Maguire, descendant of generations that had lived nearby Newgrange and a local inn keeper where Professor O’Kelly always stayed, worried over his upcoming arrival. “I tried to cancel the booking” and said we had the flu, but “I never heard back from anyone” Dilly confided to her cousin Mick. “Does he know?” Mick asked ominously.
“Can we stop him coming here on the day the light shines?”
The Shortest Day is a 31-page short story that packed an engaging tale into a mere few pages. Told in the present in alternating POVs that has a story within a story format. It not only held my attention immediately, but it also made me curious about the real site of Newgrange. What a fine way to spark one’s interest in history!
The Shortest Day is current available through Prime Reading or KU.
Professor O’Kelly, an archaeologist from Cork, anticipated spending time over his Christmas break working at, Newgrange, a site that was older “than the Pyramids and older than Stonehenge.” He lectured on, studied, and revered Newgrange. “He often felt that he was dealing not with a ruin or a set of remnants but with a living, breathing spirit.”
In the numerous times he had visited the site, it was never “in the days before Christmas.” Freezing temperatures were not conducive to outdoor field work. He previously brought students and colleagues along with him, but this time he relished working undisturbed despite the cold.
Dalc, the only one among the dead with the ability to leave the chamber and move about in the world, warns “he will be here for the winter solstice unless he can be stopped.”
Meanwhile, Dilly Maguire, descendant of generations that had lived nearby Newgrange and a local inn keeper where Professor O’Kelly always stayed, worried over his upcoming arrival. “I tried to cancel the booking” and said we had the flu, but “I never heard back from anyone” Dilly confided to her cousin Mick. “Does he know?” Mick asked ominously.
“Can we stop him coming here on the day the light shines?”
The Shortest Day is a 31-page short story that packed an engaging tale into a mere few pages. Told in the present in alternating POVs that has a story within a story format. It not only held my attention immediately, but it also made me curious about the real site of Newgrange. What a fine way to spark one’s interest in history!
The Shortest Day is current available through Prime Reading or KU.
November 16, 2020
Set in Ireland, this short story centers around the secrets, and mysterious stories associated with Newgrange, an ancient World Heritage Site built during the Stone Age, as well as a man from Cork, Professor O’Kelly, who wants to understand the mystery of this ancient, sacred site. How, and why, it was built so long ago, and yet the construction of it is not only creative, but shows the skills of early man to build this structure, along with others. Keeping in mind they lacked the advantage of metal tools, and yet they carved celtic designs in the ceilings and walls, which remain, and this was constructed in such a way that no water has managed to seep inside the main chamber.
Listening to this wonderful story brought back memories of visiting this site several years ago, and how impressive it was, and sacred it felt. I wasn’t there for the Winter Solstice, when a beam of light which travels from an opening, the ‘roof-box,’ and lights the interior gradually, as the sun rises, until the light almost mystically illuminates the passage and chamber, but even without witnessing the traveling light, visiting there left me in awe of what I did see.
Wonderfully narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds, this was a lovely reminder of the beauty and mystery that still exists, somewhere out there.
November 12, 2022
3.5★
“What fascinated him most, however, was the method of building. Someone among them knew about stress and weight. Nothing here was random or primitive or wild.”
Professor O’Kelly has finally found a time when he can investigate a Neolithic passage tomb from 3200 BC without students and colleagues along. He’s picked the few days before Christmas, when everyone else is busy and the weather is uninviting. He’s even done his Christmas shopping early (unheard of, for an absent-minded professor), and is anxious to get to his lodgings.
Everywhere he stops along the way, the people seem to be waiting for him, knowing where he is going, and they don’t seem pleased about it. The Newgrange structure is older than both the Pyramids and Stonehenge. A common feature of them is the list of questions. Who? Why? And especially How?
He has been asked often what he knows about the people and why they built it.
“‘But did they have gods? Or believe in an afterlife?’ one writer had insisted.
‘It is my job to sift the evidence,’ the professor replied. ‘There is no evidence that would allow me to answer that question.’”
Of course he’s much more curious than he admits, and he’s becoming increasingly aware that the locals know something he doesn’t. We, however, are privy to some voices, or sounds, or drifting thought patterns inside the tombs and their worry about his coming there over the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year.
Around the world, archaeologists have found ancient structures that mark seasons and the solstices and equinoxes.
https://www.almanac.com/content/ancie...
He realises that future archaeologists won’t be able to tell from our monuments and places of worship what our beliefs were.
“The scholars would just have the arches, the pillars, the tiled floor, the outline of the building, perhaps some of the items used on the altar. But if they did not have the prayer books, then they would know nothing about the prayers that were said, or the rituals that were performed. So, too, with Newgrange. He had the stones, but he did not have he equivalent of prayer books, whatever form they might have taken.”
It’s a very short story, an Amazon Original, but I have to admit it wasn’t what I expected from an author I’ve heard so much about but hadn’t read before. But I certainly enjoyed being introduced to Newgrange, I will read more Colm Tóibín. Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the preview copy.
I’ll add a photo of Newgrange below. The tomb passageway in the story is from the entrance into the tomb itself.
Newgrange from Voices From The Dawn
They also have other information and photos and a virtual reality tour.
https://voicesfromthedawn.com/newgrange/
“What fascinated him most, however, was the method of building. Someone among them knew about stress and weight. Nothing here was random or primitive or wild.”
Professor O’Kelly has finally found a time when he can investigate a Neolithic passage tomb from 3200 BC without students and colleagues along. He’s picked the few days before Christmas, when everyone else is busy and the weather is uninviting. He’s even done his Christmas shopping early (unheard of, for an absent-minded professor), and is anxious to get to his lodgings.
Everywhere he stops along the way, the people seem to be waiting for him, knowing where he is going, and they don’t seem pleased about it. The Newgrange structure is older than both the Pyramids and Stonehenge. A common feature of them is the list of questions. Who? Why? And especially How?
He has been asked often what he knows about the people and why they built it.
“‘But did they have gods? Or believe in an afterlife?’ one writer had insisted.
‘It is my job to sift the evidence,’ the professor replied. ‘There is no evidence that would allow me to answer that question.’”
Of course he’s much more curious than he admits, and he’s becoming increasingly aware that the locals know something he doesn’t. We, however, are privy to some voices, or sounds, or drifting thought patterns inside the tombs and their worry about his coming there over the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year.
Around the world, archaeologists have found ancient structures that mark seasons and the solstices and equinoxes.
https://www.almanac.com/content/ancie...
He realises that future archaeologists won’t be able to tell from our monuments and places of worship what our beliefs were.
“The scholars would just have the arches, the pillars, the tiled floor, the outline of the building, perhaps some of the items used on the altar. But if they did not have the prayer books, then they would know nothing about the prayers that were said, or the rituals that were performed. So, too, with Newgrange. He had the stones, but he did not have he equivalent of prayer books, whatever form they might have taken.”
It’s a very short story, an Amazon Original, but I have to admit it wasn’t what I expected from an author I’ve heard so much about but hadn’t read before. But I certainly enjoyed being introduced to Newgrange, I will read more Colm Tóibín. Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the preview copy.
I’ll add a photo of Newgrange below. The tomb passageway in the story is from the entrance into the tomb itself.
Newgrange from Voices From The Dawn
They also have other information and photos and a virtual reality tour.
https://voicesfromthedawn.com/newgrange/
October 23, 2022
A lovely short story about a professor in archeology visiting a burial chamber on the 21st of December, winter solstice.
November 25, 2020
Confession: I’m not a big fan of short stories. It’s not that I’ve never read a short story I’ve enjoyed, but I haven’t taken the time to determine which qualities the stories I like have in common. I think it might be that they have a clear ironic twist, or that they are short, or both, but I’m not sure. I recently read The Overstory which begins with nine segments that read as short stories. I thoroughly enjoyed those, but I think that may have been because they were all clearly linked and moving toward a common destination.
The Shortest Day has been described as a novella, but at 31 pages, an hour on audio, I consider it more of an atmospheric short story, one that for me stopped short of being anything more than just ok. The story felt as if it was just drifting along and never really grabbed me, although the writing was lovely. My guess is that short story enthusiasts, or Colm Toibin followers, would get more from it than I did.
The Shortest Day has been described as a novella, but at 31 pages, an hour on audio, I consider it more of an atmospheric short story, one that for me stopped short of being anything more than just ok. The story felt as if it was just drifting along and never really grabbed me, although the writing was lovely. My guess is that short story enthusiasts, or Colm Toibin followers, would get more from it than I did.
October 30, 2020
Although I've enjoyed everything I've read by Colm Tóibín (Brooklyn; The Testament of Mary), none of them seem to be by the same author - which is high testament to just what a gifted writer he is. This is him writing in somewhat of a minor key, but he artfully crams in a lot in 30 short pages. More of a folk tale or Irish legend, it maintains its mystery even after the final pages. What a lovely thing to read right around the winter solstice and All Hallow's Eve, and well worth the hour of so it takes to read.
My sincere thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.
My sincere thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.
Read
January 8, 2021A very likeable story, and I'm glad I heard of it, though I found a few of the details unsatisfying. I read two friends' reviews of this before I listened to it, and afterwards, my opinion falls somewhere between them.
I might also know a bit too much about archaeology not to nitpick, and to find some of the professor's thoughts, as written by Tóibín, rather elementary and sounding more like a sixth-former who wants to do an archaeology degree, or a professor in a children's book, than a career academic in his fifties in adult literary fiction whose audience might include similar. But I also don't know much about what this area of archaeology was like in the late 1960s and if one might have had as credo, viewpoints that seem basic or unimaginative today.
It's a shame there wasn't more sense of a writer really wrangling with what it might feel like to have a consciousness five thousand years old. It was a bit flippant and cartoonish, and had prehistoric spirits apparently talking about things for the first time which they would have heard about, in this setup, at least decades before 1967. More depth might be possible without losing all comedy. (Though on reflection, perhaps this was written as a family story. You could give it to a bright eight or nine year-old and no-one would take issue with the content, except fundamentalist Christians who objected to the idea of something prehistoric and pagan being sacred.) And when it's funny it's quite sweet, like one exasperated spirit telling another that Stonehenge is an island near Dublin inhabited by goats.
The spirits spend almost all their time discussing things that happened in times that, for them, are very or quite recent. I mean, I'm only in my forties and find a lot of stuff from after 2000/2005 a bit newfangled and still recent-seeming, and with friends the same age I refer to a lot of older stuff. These beings have had hugely more afterwards, but their frame of reference feels too skewed to the relatively recent for the sake of writerly convenience. The almost gossipy conversation about Cú Chulainn was well-constructed, though, evading the question of whether he was part of their belief system or a being from a later one whom they had heard about since death.
When I read a fictional account of prehistoric people that purports to show how they thought, what I hope to find is a revelatory perspective shift that also seems plausible - like the one Barbara Ehrenreich delivered in this wonderful 2019 article on cave art, spinning off from a quote from a French archaeologist, about how humans were less important players, less powerful, and the greatest drama and significance lay with large animals, far more plentiful and present than today. There are probably only so many such perspective shifts possible, and fewer still that would feel new and epiphanic to someone who's read quite a lot of such stuff - but I had hoped that a writer of Tóibín's stature could have produced something similar.
Instead, he's better on the experience of twentieth-century humans. The "strange tock" from a radiator evoking the not-quite silence of modern homes. (Though were there many radiators in rural Ireland in 1967? I'm not sure this story was designed around such questions.) The moment when the professor witnesses what he has gone there to see is really lovely, and feels like the centre of the story, as it should.
The story as a whole does that thing of being really warm and likeable at the end after being okay through most of its duration; I sometimes cynically wonder whether that's done to leave the reader with a higher opinion. (Before I noticed how common this was, it often changed a 3-star to a 4-star rating for me.)
It's a nice, cosy little low-fantasy ghost story in the tradition of many British children's books of the 1960s and 70s (so around the time it's set). But it also - perhaps inadvertently - dramatises an ethical dilemma inherent in archaeology and anthropology, one now most often heard about when it involves indigenous people, one I find wrenching because I feel very strongly in favour of both sides (something that I'm not sure will make sense to everybody). Modern western science wants the answers, and investigating them will be fascinating and mean it's possible to understand the past and culture and older ways of life better. But in folk and indigenous traditions, it may be integral to keeping something sacred to have it known only to a small number connected to that tradition, or precedent suggests that allowing a modern western approach to adjudicate on tradition isn't likely to produce good results (e.g. among indigenous American and Australian groups who have rejected outside research on population genetics). Tóibín makes it ostensibly uncontroversial because all the characters are Irish and in Ireland, and the professor didn't even come from the capital city. The character of the wisest prehistoric man in the tomb is roped in to essentially agree with the modern outlook - and given his location in Western Europe it makes sense, on a surface level, to show him in more ways than one as an ancestor of modern learning. By making an assumption, this creates the happy ending the story requires (or a happy-for-now ending, depending what you think about the eventual future of monuments like Newgrange), as well as reflecting a present material reality where the location seems fine.
(January 2021)
I might also know a bit too much about archaeology not to nitpick, and to find some of the professor's thoughts, as written by Tóibín, rather elementary and sounding more like a sixth-former who wants to do an archaeology degree, or a professor in a children's book, than a career academic in his fifties in adult literary fiction whose audience might include similar. But I also don't know much about what this area of archaeology was like in the late 1960s and if one might have had as credo, viewpoints that seem basic or unimaginative today.
It's a shame there wasn't more sense of a writer really wrangling with what it might feel like to have a consciousness five thousand years old. It was a bit flippant and cartoonish, and had prehistoric spirits apparently talking about things for the first time which they would have heard about, in this setup, at least decades before 1967. More depth might be possible without losing all comedy. (Though on reflection, perhaps this was written as a family story. You could give it to a bright eight or nine year-old and no-one would take issue with the content, except fundamentalist Christians who objected to the idea of something prehistoric and pagan being sacred.) And when it's funny it's quite sweet, like one exasperated spirit telling another that Stonehenge is an island near Dublin inhabited by goats.
The spirits spend almost all their time discussing things that happened in times that, for them, are very or quite recent. I mean, I'm only in my forties and find a lot of stuff from after 2000/2005 a bit newfangled and still recent-seeming, and with friends the same age I refer to a lot of older stuff. These beings have had hugely more afterwards, but their frame of reference feels too skewed to the relatively recent for the sake of writerly convenience. The almost gossipy conversation about Cú Chulainn was well-constructed, though, evading the question of whether he was part of their belief system or a being from a later one whom they had heard about since death.
When I read a fictional account of prehistoric people that purports to show how they thought, what I hope to find is a revelatory perspective shift that also seems plausible - like the one Barbara Ehrenreich delivered in this wonderful 2019 article on cave art, spinning off from a quote from a French archaeologist, about how humans were less important players, less powerful, and the greatest drama and significance lay with large animals, far more plentiful and present than today. There are probably only so many such perspective shifts possible, and fewer still that would feel new and epiphanic to someone who's read quite a lot of such stuff - but I had hoped that a writer of Tóibín's stature could have produced something similar.
Instead, he's better on the experience of twentieth-century humans. The "strange tock" from a radiator evoking the not-quite silence of modern homes. (Though were there many radiators in rural Ireland in 1967? I'm not sure this story was designed around such questions.) The moment when the professor witnesses what he has gone there to see is really lovely, and feels like the centre of the story, as it should.
The story as a whole does that thing of being really warm and likeable at the end after being okay through most of its duration; I sometimes cynically wonder whether that's done to leave the reader with a higher opinion. (Before I noticed how common this was, it often changed a 3-star to a 4-star rating for me.)
It's a nice, cosy little low-fantasy ghost story in the tradition of many British children's books of the 1960s and 70s (so around the time it's set). But it also - perhaps inadvertently - dramatises an ethical dilemma inherent in archaeology and anthropology, one now most often heard about when it involves indigenous people, one I find wrenching because I feel very strongly in favour of both sides (something that I'm not sure will make sense to everybody). Modern western science wants the answers, and investigating them will be fascinating and mean it's possible to understand the past and culture and older ways of life better. But in folk and indigenous traditions, it may be integral to keeping something sacred to have it known only to a small number connected to that tradition, or precedent suggests that allowing a modern western approach to adjudicate on tradition isn't likely to produce good results (e.g. among indigenous American and Australian groups who have rejected outside research on population genetics). Tóibín makes it ostensibly uncontroversial because all the characters are Irish and in Ireland, and the professor didn't even come from the capital city. The character of the wisest prehistoric man in the tomb is roped in to essentially agree with the modern outlook - and given his location in Western Europe it makes sense, on a surface level, to show him in more ways than one as an ancestor of modern learning. By making an assumption, this creates the happy ending the story requires (or a happy-for-now ending, depending what you think about the eventual future of monuments like Newgrange), as well as reflecting a present material reality where the location seems fine.
(January 2021)
October 24, 2020
“It was the winter secret of those who had lived thousands of years before. They must have loved the sun, or trusted it. They lured it down this corridor as though they were pulling it into the chamber by rope.”
The Shortest Day is a short story by prize-winning Irish author, Colm Toibin. It’s mid-December, and Cork archaeologist, Professor O’Kelly has already done his Christmas shopping, and safely stowed the gifts: it’s unusual, but he will be away until Christmas Eve, at Newgrange.
The professor is a man much focussed on clues and facts: “It was important, he would explain to the first-year archaeology class, not to embellish or imagine anything. The job of an archaeologist was to make known only what can be proved. The rest was idle speculation”; so he would never imagine that the dead who reside in the burial chamber at Newgrange might be aware of his plan. But Dalc, the only one who can travel outside, has warned them, and there is some concern.
When the professor makes his usual stop at Lawlor’s Hotel in Naas, he wonders at the barman’s uncharacteristic gruffness. And the welcome from his landlady, Dilly Maguire, is puzzlingly unenthusiastic, a far cry from her usual effusiveness.
The souls that haunt the tomb fear that the distilled light that comes once a year, that keeps their spirits in order, will be altered by the presence of this mortal, whatever his intention. “The rays of sunshine that beamed into the chamber on the shortest day nourished them through the darkness of the year to come.”
“He is a man alive in the world,” Fios said. “He is capable of anything. We must remain apart from him. We do not want the world of time to impinge on the world we have made, we who have moved out of time.”
On the shortest day, en route to the tomb, Professor O’Kelly encounters a number of obstacles, but his fascination with the spirals cut into the stone fuels his persistence. What will he find?
This very small taste of Toibin, with humour and gorgeous prose, is a beautiful little story, wonderfully told.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories.
The Shortest Day is a short story by prize-winning Irish author, Colm Toibin. It’s mid-December, and Cork archaeologist, Professor O’Kelly has already done his Christmas shopping, and safely stowed the gifts: it’s unusual, but he will be away until Christmas Eve, at Newgrange.
The professor is a man much focussed on clues and facts: “It was important, he would explain to the first-year archaeology class, not to embellish or imagine anything. The job of an archaeologist was to make known only what can be proved. The rest was idle speculation”; so he would never imagine that the dead who reside in the burial chamber at Newgrange might be aware of his plan. But Dalc, the only one who can travel outside, has warned them, and there is some concern.
When the professor makes his usual stop at Lawlor’s Hotel in Naas, he wonders at the barman’s uncharacteristic gruffness. And the welcome from his landlady, Dilly Maguire, is puzzlingly unenthusiastic, a far cry from her usual effusiveness.
The souls that haunt the tomb fear that the distilled light that comes once a year, that keeps their spirits in order, will be altered by the presence of this mortal, whatever his intention. “The rays of sunshine that beamed into the chamber on the shortest day nourished them through the darkness of the year to come.”
“He is a man alive in the world,” Fios said. “He is capable of anything. We must remain apart from him. We do not want the world of time to impinge on the world we have made, we who have moved out of time.”
On the shortest day, en route to the tomb, Professor O’Kelly encounters a number of obstacles, but his fascination with the spirals cut into the stone fuels his persistence. What will he find?
This very small taste of Toibin, with humour and gorgeous prose, is a beautiful little story, wonderfully told.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories.
April 6, 2021
A very short book, not much more than a short story, and one that would be quite magical to read at Christmas time. I love ancient sites like the one in this story. They are often very atmospheric and so it was easy to go along with the premise of the ancient souls communing with one another.
December 16, 2022
'He often felt that he was dealing not with a ruin or a set of remnants but with a living, breathing spirit.'
A sweet rather than scary story about ghosts.
It's touching, slightly humorous, thoughtful... maybe a bit melancholy, but not sad. I was shocked to read in Wikipedia that Colm Tóibín 'does not favour story and does not view himself as storyteller', because it seemed to me that this piece was very much about stories and storytelling.
I loved this (very) short story.
(It's my first book by this author and it seems by the reviews that all his other work is rather heart-rending, is that so?)
A sweet rather than scary story about ghosts.
It's touching, slightly humorous, thoughtful... maybe a bit melancholy, but not sad. I was shocked to read in Wikipedia that Colm Tóibín 'does not favour story and does not view himself as storyteller', because it seemed to me that this piece was very much about stories and storytelling.
I loved this (very) short story.
(It's my first book by this author and it seems by the reviews that all his other work is rather heart-rending, is that so?)
November 15, 2020
This morning I read a compelling review of this novella. I decided to download with audio, a free choice with Prime. I was thoroughly mesmerized by Toibin's beautiful descriptive writing. So if you have a little time to relax and read or listen to this interesting story set in Ireland, I highly recommend this as a choice. You won't be sorry.
December 3, 2020
All I'm left with after reading this short story is a heavy sense of 'why bother?'. Perhaps it was the author's intention to just to wet the whistle, so to speak. But, honestly? It didn't do it for me.
The premise of the short story is alluring. An archaeologist, who has developed an intense curiosity about an ancient burial site, seeks to unravel all of its secrets after years of study. There are shreds of Irish folklore weaved within the tale - might as well be a Siren's call for me, I can't resist a story based on or featuring myths, particularly those linked to Gaelic lore - but sadly none of these elements were strong enough within the story as to keep my initial interest piqued.
I didn't get the sense that it was atmospheric, as it all felt too superficial for that. The writing didn't delve deeply enough to successfully portray this, in my view. It all felt a bit detached - as though the archaeologist wasn't experiencing things first hand (as the narrative of the story suggests), but had already gone home and diligently recorded these thoughts in the form of a presentation. The magic of it all was lost as a result.
I'm therefore not sure what this story set out to do. It wasn't a retelling in any way - okay, that's fine; but it also wasn't a good enough story in its own right. It somehow managed to take a very promising premise and make it boring, critically lacking any real substance.
Ah well, on to the next one.
The premise of the short story is alluring. An archaeologist, who has developed an intense curiosity about an ancient burial site, seeks to unravel all of its secrets after years of study. There are shreds of Irish folklore weaved within the tale - might as well be a Siren's call for me, I can't resist a story based on or featuring myths, particularly those linked to Gaelic lore - but sadly none of these elements were strong enough within the story as to keep my initial interest piqued.
I didn't get the sense that it was atmospheric, as it all felt too superficial for that. The writing didn't delve deeply enough to successfully portray this, in my view. It all felt a bit detached - as though the archaeologist wasn't experiencing things first hand (as the narrative of the story suggests), but had already gone home and diligently recorded these thoughts in the form of a presentation. The magic of it all was lost as a result.
I'm therefore not sure what this story set out to do. It wasn't a retelling in any way - okay, that's fine; but it also wasn't a good enough story in its own right. It somehow managed to take a very promising premise and make it boring, critically lacking any real substance.
Ah well, on to the next one.
November 28, 2020
Solstice is approaching and Archaeologist Professor O’Kelly has permission to enter Newgrange’s ancient burial chambers on the shortest day of the year. The dead do not welcome him. O’Kelly believes in evidence and neither the ghost stories circulating nor the Irish locals’ interferences will deter him. While well written but short in substance. 3.5 stars.
December 27, 2020
Archaeologist Professor O’Kelly has been excavating the ancient burial chamber at Newgrange for some time. This year he intends to spend the few days before Christmas there – a time when his students and other staff will be on holiday, so that he can have the luxury of being alone. But the locals are unhappy about the idea of anyone being in the chamber at this time – winter solstice is coming and there are legends…
Based on the real story of Professor O’Kelly’s discoveries at the site in the late ‘60s and ‘70s, Toibin has added in an element of folklore and touches of the supernatural, and the result is an entertaining short story which looks at the importance of story and legend in the Irish tradition. It’s slight but beautifully written, and the narration by Tim Gerard Reynolds is excellent – he has a delightfully soothing voice, distinctively Irish and perfect for this tale. An enjoyably relaxing way to spend an hour.
Based on the real story of Professor O’Kelly’s discoveries at the site in the late ‘60s and ‘70s, Toibin has added in an element of folklore and touches of the supernatural, and the result is an entertaining short story which looks at the importance of story and legend in the Irish tradition. It’s slight but beautifully written, and the narration by Tim Gerard Reynolds is excellent – he has a delightfully soothing voice, distinctively Irish and perfect for this tale. An enjoyably relaxing way to spend an hour.
October 28, 2020
“It was the winter secret of those who had lived thousands of years before. They must have loved the sun, or trusted it. They lured it down this corridor as though they were pulling it into the chamber by rope.”
What a delightful short story by the master Irish storyteller, Colm Toibin. Beautifully told, in simple but stunning prose, this exceeded my expectations and has set the bar at what I think a short story should be like.
In reading other reviews, I found that they are all telling you what it is about and I am not going to do that. You need to go into this cold to get the full effect and magic and true beauty of this story, which is both moving and a little mysterious. And absolutely lovely. You will not be sorry going in with no prior knowledge; it is absolutely the best way to read this short story.
Thank you to NetGalley, Colm Toibin, and Amazon Original Stories for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
What a delightful short story by the master Irish storyteller, Colm Toibin. Beautifully told, in simple but stunning prose, this exceeded my expectations and has set the bar at what I think a short story should be like.
In reading other reviews, I found that they are all telling you what it is about and I am not going to do that. You need to go into this cold to get the full effect and magic and true beauty of this story, which is both moving and a little mysterious. And absolutely lovely. You will not be sorry going in with no prior knowledge; it is absolutely the best way to read this short story.
Thank you to NetGalley, Colm Toibin, and Amazon Original Stories for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
November 25, 2020
Atmospheric and beautifully written, this short story is a quick, yet immersive experience in the archeological Ireland.
January 3, 2021
The nice thing about this short story is how the atmosphere is set. It is a steady build up to an event and has no drag.
I was disappointed on some level with how much is drawn from clichés. For instance, the way the people living in Newgrange feel the presence of the spirits or how the name of God and his mother drives a spirit away. I felt that these clichés didn't really add to the story.
As for the story itself, the archeologist witnessing sunlight on the winter solstice at the burial chamber is what it all builds up to. And when he does witness it, his admiration for the ancient people and their skills in construction increases. But the way it's written up, it feels like there was no punch line at the end of a joke. It was delivered very nonchalantly.
As for him keeping it from his landlady and her sudden change in attitude towards him stemming from a belief that he will now be a different man - I don't now what this bit is about.
What he witnessed and how he felt about it goes completely unaddressed and I would have liked the story to explore the effects of the big event. A spirit following him back home is not the end I was expecting.
I was disappointed on some level with how much is drawn from clichés. For instance, the way the people living in Newgrange feel the presence of the spirits or how the name of God and his mother drives a spirit away. I felt that these clichés didn't really add to the story.
As for the story itself, the archeologist witnessing sunlight on the winter solstice at the burial chamber is what it all builds up to. And when he does witness it, his admiration for the ancient people and their skills in construction increases. But the way it's written up, it feels like there was no punch line at the end of a joke. It was delivered very nonchalantly.
As for him keeping it from his landlady and her sudden change in attitude towards him stemming from a belief that he will now be a different man - I don't now what this bit is about.
What he witnessed and how he felt about it goes completely unaddressed and I would have liked the story to explore the effects of the big event. A spirit following him back home is not the end I was expecting.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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