Orange Horses is a collection of ferocious, witty, and thoroughly entertaining short stories. First published as a collection in 1990, they richly illustrate the plight of marginalised women in contemporary Irish society. From island life in the far west of Ireland, to dingy student accommodation in the centre of London, from the War of Independence to the IRA letter-bombing campaign in England in the 1970s, and from the impoverished life of rural farmers to the world of successful young writers and passionate artists, Maeve Kelly tells the stories of a diverse and fascinating range of characters. In charting their lives, she pivots from deep humanity reminiscent of Mary Lavin to a bleak incisiveness evocative of Edna O'Brien. Orange Horses is a beautiful, sad and funny collection of stories of the undervalued, the oppressed and the quietly heroic.
