Housebroken by Evelyn Walsh

The night of the robbery Ruth had gone to bed early with The Housebreaker of Shady Hill. She was stunned by this coincidence; it was her opening line in class the next day. “We were robbed last night, and guess what I was reading.” The kids hooted and crowed in jolly disbelief, or rather the kids who had actually read the story fell about laughing and the others quickly caught on. Ruth laughed along with them. She supposed she should be more upset. 

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Photo © Aurélie Bellacicco. 

The August 2016 edition of Long Story, Short Journal is 'Housebroken' by Evelyn Walsh, with a photo by Aurélie Bellacicco. Evelyn Walsh, the 2015 winner of the Seán Ó Faoláin International short story competition, often scrutinises the drama of everyday life in her work. Home, neighbourhood and the workplace are observed with a literary lense, and her characters' lives are relayed with wit, compassion and an unrelenting honesty.  READ 'HOUSEBROKEN'. 

An Optical Illusion

Photo © Alina Hartwig

He should have had the decency to die while they were still married, Anna thought. He should have widowed her. There was dignity in that.

January 2015's edition of Long Story, Short Journal is Eimear Ryan's 'Optical Illusion', a tale of woman who must carefully navigate her ex-husband's funeral--a return to a once familiar setting, now made strange. Eimear Ryan is an up-and-coming Irish writer, featured alongside the likes of Pat McCabe, Mary Costello and Colin Barrett in Faber's Town and Country anthology of new Irish writing. CLICK HERE TO READ OPTICAL ILLUSION.