Startling short stories that take plenty of turns

FICTION: Room Little Darker, By June Caldwell , New Island Books, €11.95

June Caldwell: an impressive collection of haunting tales Pic: Crispin Rodwell

Perhaps one reason why June Caldwell’s extremely arresting debut short story collection is called Room Little Darker is because the dying Leonard Cohen got there ahead of her in bagging You Want It Darker as a title for his last album.

But whereas the darkness in Cohen’s raging against the dying of the light was softened by his trademark mordant wit, the humour that occasionally percolates through Caldwell’s savage vignettes of contemporary Irish ...