We are happy and proud – overjoyed, really! – to share with you a few lines from a letter that the great American post-modernist writer Richard Kalich wrote to us and the Irish writer Colin O’Sullivan after having read his work for the first time (Colin’s novel, The Starved Lover Sings). Such an endorsement, coming … Continue reading “A Poet of Darkness”
“Novels are all about commitment” – Colin O’Sullivan’s profile in Books Ireland Magazine
Meet a writer who "has an understanding of the power of words, their placing, their specific meaning" and "reflects the current malaise and modern preoccupations", "sends language out on a gleeful spree, exuberant, defiant", and who is "one of the finest storytellers out there, a lyrical master of the written word".
More praise for “The Dark Manual”
Review published on Book Nudge / Book Noir, August 31, 2018. The Dark Manual defies easy categorisation; it’s a literary novel, a very desperate tale of love and loss, a noir thriller, of real and imaginary threats and a sci-fi speculation (which could be read as prescient future gazing). O’Sullivan has carved himself a distinct … Continue reading More praise for “The Dark Manual”
Interview with Colin O’Sullivan in Your Secret Library
A few days before the release of Colin's third novel, THE DARK MANUAL, a Trinity College Dublin graduate Polly Young interviews her fellow Trinity College alumnus for Your Secret Library Magazine: Colin O’Sullivan is a poet and a novelist, author of Killarney Blues (2013), The Starved Lover Sings (2017), and The Dark Manual (May 2018), … Continue reading Interview with Colin O’Sullivan in Your Secret Library
“Colin O’Sullivan writes gloriously”
In Tom Russell's song about Lightnin' Hopkins, 'Scars on His Ankles,” he writes of Lightnin's scars on his ankles where the chain from the chain gang cut his skin. In Colin O'Sullivan's jewel of a first novel, Killarney Blues, winner of the “Prix Mystere de la critique,” in France, the main characters also have scars, … Continue reading “Colin O’Sullivan writes gloriously”
Colin O’Sullivan wins the “Prix Mystère de la critique” in France for “Killarney Blues”
Congratulations to Colin O'Sullivan, Winner of a prestigious crime fiction award in France: the Prix Mystère de la critique! Previous winners include: Don Winslow, Daniel Woodrell, Dennis Lehane, Boris Akunin, Donald E. Westlake, Henning Mankell, James Ellroy, Michael Connelly, Thomas Harris, and many other fabulous writers from around the world.
Colin O’Sullivan’s “KILLARNEY BLUES” is on RTL!
Colin O'Sullivan's novel KILLARNEY BLUES (French translation, Éditions Rivages, Sept. 2017) is on the RTL radio (C'est à lire - To be read)! "This first Noir novel from Colin O'Sullivan is magnificent, very finely written, and profoundly sad. To be savoured while drinking a Guinness and listening to some old blues, by Muddy Waters or … Continue reading Colin O’Sullivan’s “KILLARNEY BLUES” is on RTL!
Christmas nostalgia : Our authors about the best book gift they have ever received (Part 3)
Hadley Colt, author of Permanent Fatal Error and The Red-Handed League Forget Nancy Drew: Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise was my Christmas-gift light-bulb moment of finding a thriller series with a strong female lead, and inspiring my own heroine-driven novels for Betimes Books. Colin O’Sullivan, author of Killarney Blues and The Starved Lover Sings This is … Continue reading Christmas nostalgia : Our authors about the best book gift they have ever received (Part 3)
Review of “Killarney Blues” in Le Soir
Voilà à quoi ressemble Killarney à l’aube de ce siècle nouveau. Il y a des bagels. Et c’est le genre d’endroit dans lequel elles viennent prendre un café : un bistrot élégant, bien éclairé, minimaliste, avec des tableaux de bon goût sur les murs, des décorations végétales spectrales en forme de bâtons sur les tables et … Continue reading Review of “Killarney Blues” in Le Soir
Killarney Blues – Colin O’Sullivan
A wonderful review of the French edition of Colin O’Sullivan’s KILLARNEY BLUES!
Traduit par Ludivine Bouton-Kelly
Bernard est jarvey dans la petite ville de Killarney, en Irlande, dans le comté du Kerry. Si vous connaissez Killarney, vous avez sûrement rencontré ces conducteurs de calèche qui promènent toute la journée les nombreux touristes. Pourtant Bernard est mis au ban de la bourgade : il est considéré un peu comme l’idiot du village. On découvre qu’il aurait peut-être une forme d’autisme Asperger (mais cela reste une supposition). Cet homme a une passion : le blues. Dès qu’il peut, il gratte sa guitare et chante (mais chez lui). Il est incollable sur tous les bluesmen américains. Une passion que lui a transmise son père, décédé. Bernard est amoureux depuis son adolescence de Marian, à qui il envoie régulièrement des cassettes de ses enregistrements.
Quand s’ouvre le récit, Bernard se fait rosser par des hommes, à la sortie d’un pub. On ne sait pas pourquoi. Des…
View original post 837 more words
Video extract from “The Starved Lover Sings”
This novel is O’Sullivan’s second, after Killarney Blues, published by Betimes Books in 2013. It takes place in a world transformed by disaster: earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, nationalist and corporate mergers, roaming wolves. The Starved Lover Sings is a fever dream of a world at the end of its rope. Our protagonist, and in many chapters … Continue reading Video extract from “The Starved Lover Sings”
KILLARNEY BLUES to be published in France
We are happy to announce the first (of many, no doubt!) translation rights sale for Colin O'Sullivan's novel KILLARNEY BLUES. French translation rights have been acquired by the legendary publisher of Rivages François Guérif. The novel will be translated by Jean-Paul Gratias, the no-less-legendary translator of James Ellroy and William Kotzwinkle, among others. "Marvellous novel, endearing, … Continue reading KILLARNEY BLUES to be published in France
“A quixotic endeavour with an unclear goal”. Colin O’Sullivan interviews David Hogan.
Colin O’Sullivan: The Last Island covers important issues like “environmentalism, animal rights, and the costs of capitalism”. What made you want to write about these issues? David Hogan: I believe that these are among the paramount issues of our time, and that our responses to them will shape the future. So it would’ve … Continue reading “A quixotic endeavour with an unclear goal”. Colin O’Sullivan interviews David Hogan.
Writing, reading, music, and “far-awayness”. David Hogan interviews Colin O’Sullivan
David Hogan: You're in the long tradition of writers leaving Ireland in order to write about it. Is there something unique about the country that pushes you away while at the same time drawing you back? Colin O’Sullivan: The Irish have always been a migrant race as you know, for many reasons too long to … Continue reading Writing, reading, music, and “far-awayness”. David Hogan interviews Colin O’Sullivan
“There’s only that unbidden quest to make a sentence sing…”
Why I Write By Colin O'Sullivan I write because I have to. No message, no voice. I write for it demands me. Because I have no choice. I wake and think of writing, I go to bed the same. All day I think of writing, My antidote, my pain. Nothing matters but the … Continue reading “There’s only that unbidden quest to make a sentence sing…”
St. Patrick’s Day Greetings from Colin O’Sullivan
St. Patrick's Day Greetings.
Hey, hey babe I’ve got blood in my eyes for you
"She takes out the tape from its box and inserts it into the stereo. Then she removes her flimsy dressing gown and crawls back into bed. Her legs feel heavy. She doesn’t know if she’s coming down with something or whether it’s the after-effects of last night’s dancing. She’s not as young as she’d like … Continue reading Hey, hey babe I’ve got blood in my eyes for you
In love? Read or offer to the Loved One one of these books
Valentine's Day gift ideas for Him or Her: http://viewbook.at/TheLastIsland http://viewBook.at/KillarneyBlues_OSullivan http://getBook.at/ForeversJustPretend http://getBook.at/SILK_Mallon
Colin O’Sullivan’s review of THE NIHILESTHETE by Richard Kalich
Review of The Nihilesthete, by Richard Kalich (Betimes Books)
When social-worker Haberman finds a limbless wheelchair-bound man observing a street artist, it’s as if all his birthdays have come at once. He can now set about the task that he may always have been destined for, to take this unfortunate victim under his monstrous wing and systematically abuse him (mentally and spiritually) until he is somehow sated.
Why does he do this? What unfortunate events in his past have compelled him to carry out such atrocities? Wrong question. It’s like asking how Winnie got buried in sand in Beckett’s “Happy Days”: the fact is that she just happens to be buried in sand; the fact is that Haberman just happens to be this way, like Simenon’s Frank Friedermaier in Dirty Snow perhaps, bad to the bone. Those looking for easy armchair-psychology rationalizations have come to the wrong anti-hero.
View original post 299 more words
Colin O’Sullivan on Random pointless questions from rock music obsessives
Like the character of Bernard in my debut novel, Killarney Blues, many of my friends are music obsessives, the kind of people who wouldn’t be out of place in Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity.
These cardigan-wearers (to which I am a fully fledged and flouting member) often fire out pointless emails asking all kinds of random music questions. These have been happening for years, and the sad fact is that I have begun to cherish the arrival of these useless inquisitions.
Below are an example of some of the kinds of questions my muso buddies like to ask, and my deeply considered answers (we’re talking hours people, days). Please note also that these answers are liable to change. For example, when recently asked about my favourite Bowie album I instinctively answered Low, but on the following day could just have easily said Station to Station or Hunky Dory. Such is the kind…
View original post 247 more words
Betimes Books 
You must be logged in to post a comment.