He has left Gar. They parted in Paris. It's all very sad but Sean O'Reilly is confident the passport problems of his pet huskie will be sorted out in due course. And so tonight the Derry man, now living in Dublin, is celebrating the publication of his first book, Curfew and other stories. Lee Brackstone, his editor from Faber and Faber, has come from London to officiate. "There's been an incredible boom in shortstory writing over the past decade - James Kelman, Irvine Welsh, Lorrie Moore, David Foster Wallace . . ." he lists them off. "And it's not inappropriate to mention Sean O'Reilly's name in this list."
Laurence Browne, a music teacher at St Dominic's College in Cabra, is already a fan and comes to the book launch in Waterstone's to congratulate O'Reilly. Another friend is John Somers, a carpenter originally from Sligo, who waits to get his book signed. Billy O hAnluain, a jazz pianist, is here too, getting ready to DJ at a little party to mark the day afterwards, and so everyone heads up to Toner's on Baggot Street for a night of music and catchin' up. And of course, there's no curfew now.
Antony Farrell, Lilliput Press publisher, is here with his daughter Bridget, enjoying the reading. He'll have his own party later in the week when The Years of Bloom, James Joyce in Trieste 1904-1920 by John McCourt is launched.