“And just like that Marlene appears. This happens frequently in this town; incant a body’s name and, lo, they appear,” writes Colin Barrett in the first story of his 2014 critically acclaimed first collection, Young Skins. The ability to speak a person’s name and summon their presence is one of many oddities that Barrett pulls from the country’s rural areas and small towns, which provide the backdrop for the vast majority of his writings. “There’s an innately theatrical aspect to Irish people,” he tells The Currency podcast. “They have roles in a small town, everyone has their role, and they…

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