AustLit

'Hailing “a promising new voice” is a useful cliché of criticism, and one which Sean O’Beirne’s debut collection earns as literally, and as variously, as possible. What we have here are not so much stories as miniature monologues detailing a world somewhere between everyday and apocalyptic, and shaped with some of our lowest forms of utterance: political press conferences, YouTube comments, bucks night speeches. It’s rare to see a book so confident in its ability to convert the linguistic detritus of our era into something of lasting value.' (Introduction)