martin walsh

 

 

 

THE GIRL WITH THE COOL HANDS

(memoir short-story collection)

 

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(Reading in progress) The Girl with the Cool Hands is a vivid and captivating collection of short stories set in 1960s Sierra Leone and its neighbouring countries, as seen through the eyes of Ben, a young British fisheries researcher. Delivered with immense intelligence, warmth and respect, these beautifully written tales paint a life-affirming portrait of a remarkable place and time.

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extract from the story SNAPPER

 

Old Ibrahim stared gloomily at the empty ocean. The snapper boat lay becalmed, its single ragged triangle of sail hanging limply from the mast. The crew, Mustapha, St John and Kamara, dozed in the afternoon heat, their broad calloused feet splayed out in the bilges. From the coils of fishing lines which lay there, single threads snaked up between their toes, over the gunwales and down into the lifeless sea. Only Ibrahim, who rarely slept nowadays, and his grandson Musa were awake. In every direction the horizon was identical: a razor line between sea and sky, with not a ship, a sail, nor a hint of a coastline to disturb it. Above the slumbering ocean, the only sign of movement was that of an occasional passing seabird. Suddenly something made Ibrahim sit up, and he peered into the distance, eyes narrowed against the sun. Some changed quality to the air made him feel there was something out there, something just beyond the horizon. But no. His instinct must be wrong. However, the instinct that told him the boy was staring at him was real enough, and he turned to look at Musa.

© martin walsh

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LA CASA DEL BACALAO

(magical-realism novella)

 

 (Reading complete)  In the city of Zaragoza, in north-eastern Spain, Quino Bacalao, the owner of the dried-cod shop 'La Casa del Bacalao' is anything but ordinary. Taciturn and as piscatorial in bearing as his surname would suggest, he nevertheless forges a close friendship with the supremely dignified and elegant Isabella, owner of the neighbouring Stork Cafe. Bacalao and Isabella share similar secrets, which they gradually reveal to each other, aware that this will imperil their friendship.

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extract from CHAPTER ONE:

A CURIOUS-LOOKING MAN

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Señor Bacalao sat behind the counter of his shop, staring lugubriously across its tiled interior and out through the windows onto Calle Don Jaime. He watched a newspaper fly past, whirled suddenly heavenwards in a wild dance before blowing out of sight. El Cierzo had been howling for days now. It roared in off the Bay of Biscay, cooled itself on the snowy peaks of Moncayo, then accelerated down the Ebro valley before funnelling viciously into the streets of Zaragoza. Señor Bacalao detested it: no customers would venture to his shop in this wind unless they had to. As for himself, he feared it above any other weather, even the searing scald of the summer sun. Both dangerously dried his skin until it cracked, despite the copious quantities of a special gel he used to keep it moist. But this wind carried some extra menace: it set up a terrible yearning, a yearning for something, somewhere that he couldn't quite reach, like the shadow of a dream disappearing at day-break.

 

© martin walsh

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For more of Martin's work, see both the Lemon Tree Writers website and the Pushing Out the Boat website