Frank O'Connor

Stories of soldiers, nuns, priests, doctors, widows, children, old couples, lovers, and many others offer a frank portrait of life in Ireland

Collected Stories

Tobias S. Buckell

Karen Traviss

Eric Nylund

A volume of short works inspired by the universe as depicted in the popular video game expands the stories of its characters while offering new insights into a variety of storyline elements and races. Simultaneous. Video game tie-in.

Essential Tales of the Halo Universe

Halo: Evolutions

Matt Forbeck

James Swallow

Troy Denning

Christie Golden

John Jackson Miller

Brian Reed

Kelly Gay

Kevin Grace

Joseph Staten

Morgan Lockhart

A sensational short story collection in the expansive universe of HALO, the New York Times bestselling series! Launch once more into galaxy-spanning conflict and legendary heroism…shards of an ever-expanding journey where human and alien alike find their finest hours in facing their greatest challenges. These scattered stories span untold millennia, from the age of the ancient custodial race known as the Forerunners…to the aftermath of the Covenant’s bloody war against humanity…and even the shocking events surrounding the resurrection of the mysterious Guardians. Halo: Fractures explores mythic tales of bravery and sacrifice that blaze brightly at the very heart of the Halo universe. Featuring electrifying works from such acclaimed authors as: Tobias Buckell • Troy Denning • Matt Forbeck • Kelly Gay • Christie Golden • Kevin Grace • Morgan Lockhart • John Jackson Miller • Frank O’Connor • Brian Reed • Joseph Staten • James Swallow

Extraordinary Tales from the Halo Canon

Halo: Fractures

Julian Barnes's new selection of stories by Frank O'Connor displays to the fullest his versatility, humour and insight in tales about childhood and marriage, sex and religion, war and old age. Here, O'Connor depicts young boys convinced of their own genius or locked in hilarious rivalry with their fathers, and IRA soldiers who must make heartbreaking decisions in the midst of a baffling war. In other tales an old woman threatens to haunt her son if he fails to bury her at her old home, while a scandal threatens to ignite when a floral wreath is sent anonymously to a priest's funeral. In these beautiful evocations of ordinary life - both comic and tragic - O'Connor portrays small moments that take us to the psychological truth at the hart of his characters.

And Other Stories

My Oedipus Complex

Jackie faces his first confession with great trepidation following a warning lecture from his obnoxious, older sister.

First Confession

This collection of stories centers on the theme of the Irish Revolution. O'Connor is concerned with the way in which war imposes a false and cruel ethic on people, ruthlessly destroying human relationships. The title story has been widely acknowledged as one of the masterpieces of the short story form.

Guests of the Nation

Introduction by Russell Banks. The legendary book about writing by the legendary writer is back! Frank O'Connor was one of the twentieth century's greatest short story writers, and one of Ireland's greatest authors ever. Now, O'Connor's influential and sought-after book on the short story is back. The Lonely Voice offers a master class with the master. With his sharp wit and straightforward prose, O'Connor not only discusses the techniques and challenges of a form in which "a whole lifetime must be crowded into a few minutes," but he also delves into a passionate consideration of his favorite writers and their greatest works, including Chekhov, Hemingway, Kipling, Joyce, and others.

A Study of the Short Story

The Lonely Voice

Gathers stories by James Joyce, Liam O'Flaherty, Frank O'Connor, Elizabeth Bowen and Mary Lavin

Classic Irish Short Stories

The story of the title deals with a little boy named Larry and his feelings towards his father. When his father returns home from World War II, Larry is resentful and jealous of losing his mother's undivided attention, and finds himself in a constant struggle to win back her affections.

and Other Stories

David Greene

A Golden treasury of Irish poetry, A.D. 600 to A.D. 1200

Recounts O'Connors personal and professional life from early manhood and includes glimpses of the men who encouraged and inspired him

My Father's Son

The first two volumes of O'Connor's autobiography. AN ONLY CHILD is the entrancing story of an Irish childhood and a youthful involvement in the Irish rebellion which leads to internment. In MY FATHER'S SON O'Connor is released after the Civil war to begin a turbulent career as a writer, sharing his life and loves in Dublin with characters as formidable as Yeats and Lennox Robinson.

An Only Child AND My Father's Son

In 1916, a young man named Michael Collins returned to his native Ireland, after ten years in voluntary exile in London, to join one of the most impassioned and complicated revolutions in history. Playfully nicknamed "The Big Fellow," Collins began to take a key role in the uprisings, eventually becoming a revered revolutionary leader. Acclaimed writer Frank O'Connor, a man who himself fought in the Irish Civil War, traces Collin's life from the day he returned to Dublin to the day a young Irish soldier shot him dead on a country road. The Big Fellow achieves a narrative both probing and poetic as it chronicles the life of a man so charismatic that he made people "aware of his presence even when he was not visible, through that uncomfortable magnetism of the very air, a tingling of the nerves."

Michael Collins and the Irish Revolution

The Big Fellow

In 1916, a young man named Michael Collins returned to his native Ireland, after ten years in voluntary exile in London, to join one of the most impassioned and complicated revolutions in history. Playfully nicknamed "The Big Fellow," Collins began to take a key role in the uprisings, eventually becoming a revered revolutionary leader. Acclaimed writer Frank O'Connor, a man who himself fought in the Irish Civil War, traces Collin's life from the day he returned to Dublin to the day a young Irish soldier shot him dead on a country road. (From Amazon.com).

Stories and Tales by Frank O'Connor

Traveller's Samples

An original digital e-short set in the Halo Universe and based on the New York Times bestselling video game series!

Halo: Saint's Testimony

My Father's Son, the second volume of Frank O'Connor's acclaimed memoir, begins where An Only Child left off, with the author coming out of the internment camp after being imprisoned as an Irish revolutionary and plunging into the burgeoning intellectual-political ferment of Dublin in the 1920s. O'Connor is a young writer struggling to find his place and his voice in a profoundly changed Ireland. Gradually, he begins to establish a formidable reputation. Guests of the Nation and The Saint and Mary Kate belong to this period. The excitement of the Irish literary renaissance is made immediate as O'Connor tells of his friend the poet George Russell, who was the first to publish his work, and of his participation in the triumphs and rivalries of the Abbey Theatre. Here, beautifully rendered, are playwrights Lady Gregory, J. M. Synge, Lennox Robinson, and Sean O'Casey. Central to the book—as he was to O'Connor's life and work—is the complex and majestic figure of William Butler Yeats. The memoir ends with Yeats's death and with it O'Connor's realization that he can no longer divide his talent between his job and his passion. He begins, at last, his life as a writer.

The story of Frank O'Connor is that of a shy child from a Cork slum who becomes aware that there is something beyond the confines of his life and the lives around him, something grander. And with resolve and labor, he makes his way toward it. From his childhood to the time of his release from imprisonment as a revolutionary, O 'Connor conveys the moral fortune and the tragic elements of life, that sparked his storytelling—a life he describes as a "celebration of those who for me represented all I should ever know of God."

Frank O'Connor

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