A riveting English translation the Irish classic tale of heartache, death, and loneliness by the beloved author of The Dirty Dust The final published work by the renowned Mairtin O Cadhain, this novella follows a widower as he attempts to plan his wife's funeral arrangements without money, direction, or whiskey. Thrown into a desert of unknowing, he knows not where to turn or what to do. In a poignant meditation on regret, possibilities, maybes, and avoidances, the author portrays a man hopelessly watching as the people in the world go about their lives around him. With black humor sprinkled throughout, the book, a profound look at psychic loss and puzzlement by a writer at the height of his powers, illustrates O Cadhain's conviction that tragedy and comedy are inextricably connected. Bringing this work to an English-speaking audience for the first time, this volume includes an illuminating introduction by Alan Titley, whose skillful translation captures the spirit and tone of the original.

The original English-language translation of O Cadhain's raucous masterpiece Cre na Cille, which Colm Toibin has called the "greatest novel to be written in the Irish language" "An audacious novel rendered entirely in dialogue . . . [with] hilarious quarrels and devastating put-downs that reflect O'Cadhain's finely attuned ear for the nimble language of his people. He does not judge their time-wasting pettiness, so much as he celebrates the flaws that make us so tragically, wonderfully, human."-Dan Barry, New York Times Book Review Mairtin O Cadhain's irresistible and infamous novel The Dirty Dust is consistently ranked as the most important prose work in modern Irish, yet no translation for English-language readers has ever before been published. Alan Titley's vigorous new translation, full of the brio and guts of O Cadhain's original, at last brings the pleasures of this great satiric novel to the far wider audience it deserves. 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. Also available from Yale University Press: Graveyard Clay, an annotated edition of Cre na Cille translated by Liam Mac Con Iomaire and Tim Robinson

A brilliant new translation of O Cadhain's modern Irish literature masterpiece, meant to spark debate and comparison with Alan Titley's Dirty Dust, now with bonus materials on its history, reception, interpretations, adaptations, and more "Gloriously attuned to the energy, copiousness, invective and ribaldry of the original Cre na Cille."-Patricia Craig, Times Literary Supplement "Corrosively satirical and darkly comic. . . . A tour de force of a gabfest."-Mark Harman, Los Angeles Review of Books In critical opinion and popular polls, Mairtin O Cadhain's Graveyard Clay is invariably ranked the most important prose work in modern Irish. This bold new translation of his radically original Cre na Cille is the shared project of two fluent speakers of the Irish of O Cadhain's native region, Liam Mac Con Iomaire and Tim Robinson. They have achieved a lofty goal: to convey O Cadhain's meaning accurately and to meet his towering literary standards. Graveyard Clay is a novel of black humor, reminiscent of the work of Synge and Beckett. The story unfolds entirely in dialogue as the newly dead arrive in the graveyard, bringing news of recent local happenings to those already confined in their coffins. Avalanches of gossip, backbiting, flirting, feuds, and scandal-mongering ensue, while the absurdity of human nature becomes ever clearer. This edition of O Cadhain's masterpiece is enriched with footnotes, bibliography, publication and reception history, and other materials that invite further study and deeper enjoyment of his most engaging and challenging work.

A collection of the finest stories from the Irish author of The Dirty Dust, published fifty years after his death "Every sentence is packed with explosive power, not a word wasted, and the whole is almost unbearably moving."-Hilary Mantel These colorful tales from renowned Irish author Mairtin O 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.