Join us for the launch of Dermot Bolger’s new collection of short stories, Imperfect Beings .
From first love to final reckoning, this poignant new collection captures the heartbreak and hope that define us. Life moves forward, but its meaning often emerges in hindsight. Imperfect Beings captures those unexpected moments when past loves and choices resurface with startling clarity. These stories explore ageing, memory, and the lingering imprint of first encounters - how joy, loss, and betrayal echo across decades.
A man searches for a secret half-sister to understand his father. A woman is haunted by a boy’s death fifty years ago. A lighthouse keeper recalls his first love. A public figure slipping into dementia relives one fateful night. From childhood holidays shadowed by tragedy to chance reunions that rewrite old narratives, Bolger’s characters wrestle with Yeats’s ‘rag and bone shop of the heart’, revealing the fragile beauty of human connection.
All are welcome and refreshments will be served.
Attendance is free but booking is essential.
PRAISE FOR DERMOT BOLGER
“I think of Bolger as Dublin’s Pasolini … The saddest, truthfullest poetry you can imagine. Poetry at its lyric limits.” - Paul Durcan
“He has been prying open the Irish ribcage since he was 16 years old… Pound for pound, word for word, I’d have Bolger represent us in any literary Olympics.” - Colum McCann
“Bolger writes with great intuition about the secrets and lies that circulate beneath the surface of our everyday lives” - Leagues O’Toole, Sunday Business Post
ABOUT
Dermot Bolger is an Irish novelist, playwright, poet and editor from Dublin, Ireland. Bolger is the author of fourteen novels, including The Journey Home, The Family on Paradise Pier, The Lonely Sea and Sky and An Ark of Light. His latest novel, Hide Away, was published in 2024.