An Arrow in Flight
Published on 5. March 2026
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-5299-5648-1 (ISBN)
Description
Mary Lavin is the great unsung voice of Irish fiction. Here are her very best, most electric stories: illuminating, moving, arrows in flight.
SELECTED AND INTRODUCED BY COLM TOIBIN
Mary Lavin's stories feature ordinary people in the tight confines of ordinary life. From rural Ireland and the streets of Dublin they charm, irritate and intrigue in complicated brilliance, appearing to us with unique freshness. Good friendships, bad deeds, frustrations, missteps, hope and laughter are all found in captivating stories where real and astonishing things happen.
Few women were so consistently published in the New Yorker and yet today Lavin's work is largely unpublished and overlooked. This collection re-establishes her as one of the most genius, irresistible and memorable voices of the last century.
SELECTED AND INTRODUCED BY COLM TOIBIN
'She is, to come right out with it, magnificent' New York Times
'Mary Lavin's stories are a delight. They are delicate, but not too delicate to carry tragedy on one shoulder and comedy on the other' Sunday Times
'Lavin writes like a dream' New York Times Book Review
SELECTED AND INTRODUCED BY COLM TOIBIN
Mary Lavin's stories feature ordinary people in the tight confines of ordinary life. From rural Ireland and the streets of Dublin they charm, irritate and intrigue in complicated brilliance, appearing to us with unique freshness. Good friendships, bad deeds, frustrations, missteps, hope and laughter are all found in captivating stories where real and astonishing things happen.
Few women were so consistently published in the New Yorker and yet today Lavin's work is largely unpublished and overlooked. This collection re-establishes her as one of the most genius, irresistible and memorable voices of the last century.
SELECTED AND INTRODUCED BY COLM TOIBIN
'She is, to come right out with it, magnificent' New York Times
'Mary Lavin's stories are a delight. They are delicate, but not too delicate to carry tragedy on one shoulder and comedy on the other' Sunday Times
'Lavin writes like a dream' New York Times Book Review
Reviews / Votes
She is, to come right out with it, magnificent * New York Times * She reminds us...what literature is about -- Anthony Burgess Mary Lavin's stories are a delight. They are delicate, but not too delicate to carry tragedy on one shoulder and comedy on the other * Sunday Times * She fascinates me more than any other of the Irish writers of my generation -- Frank O'Connor Mary Lavin is keeping the stronghold of the Irish story in first-rate repair * Spectator * Mary Lavin's prose has the simplicity and glow of time-polished wood * Sunday Times * Caustic and also lyrical, she sees Ireland, even in its most obscure aspects, with a visionary penetration -- Seamus Deane [Lavin] writes like a dream * New York Times Book Review * These sombre and skilfully written stories describe the tragic dilemmas with which character and nature confront humans everywhere * Washington Post * No one writing in Ireland today can penetrate more unerringly to the very essence of individual Irish character than Mary Lavin * New York Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Dimensions
Height: 220 mm
Width: 148 mm
Thickness: 40 mm
Weight
517 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5299-5648-1 (9781529956481)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2026
Vintage Digital
€12.99
Available for download
Persons
Mary Lavin (Author)
Mary Lavin was an award-winning writer best known for her short stories. Born in East Walpole, Massachusetts, to Irish parents, she returned to live in Ireland as a child and spent most of her life in County Meath, where many of her stories are set. She was a writer under contract to the New Yorker magazine and received many honours, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, a number of Guggenheim Fellowships and an honorary doctorate the National University of Ireland. She received the title of Saoi from Aosdana and is the first woman writer to have a public space named after her in Dublin.
Colm Toibin (Introducer)
Colm Toibin was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of two novels, The South, which won The Irish Times/Aer Lingus Prize, and The Heather Blazing, which won the Encore Prize for the best second novel published in Britain in 1992, as well as two travel books, Homage to Barcelona and The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe. He lives in Dublin.
Mary Lavin was an award-winning writer best known for her short stories. Born in East Walpole, Massachusetts, to Irish parents, she returned to live in Ireland as a child and spent most of her life in County Meath, where many of her stories are set. She was a writer under contract to the New Yorker magazine and received many honours, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, a number of Guggenheim Fellowships and an honorary doctorate the National University of Ireland. She received the title of Saoi from Aosdana and is the first woman writer to have a public space named after her in Dublin.
Colm Toibin (Introducer)
Colm Toibin was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of two novels, The South, which won The Irish Times/Aer Lingus Prize, and The Heather Blazing, which won the Encore Prize for the best second novel published in Britain in 1992, as well as two travel books, Homage to Barcelona and The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe. He lives in Dublin.