🔴 Condition - Good 🔴
The original English-language translation of O Cadhain's raucous masterpiece Cre na Cille, which has been called by Colm Toibin 'the greatest novel to be written in the Irish language.'
In The Dirty Dust all characters lie dead in their graves. This, however, does not impair their banter or their appetite for news of aboveground happenings from the recently arrived. Told entirely in dialogue, O Cadhain's daring novel listens in on the gossip, rumors, backbiting, complaining, and obsessing of the local community. In the afterlife, it seems, the same old life goes on beneath the sod. Only nothing can be done about it-apart from talk. In this merciless yet comical portrayal of a closely bound community, O Cadhain remains keenly attuned to the absurdity of human behavior, the lilt of Irish gab, and the nasty, deceptive magic of human connection.