The weight of a human heart : stories

"You will be astounded by the hugeness of his heart, and by the breadth and depth of his vision. O'Neill is a writer of limitless imagination." — Hector Tobar, author of The Barbarian Nurseries Ranging from Australia and Africa to Europe and Asia and back again, The Weight of a Human Heart heralds a fresh and important new voice in fiction. Ryan O'Neill takes us on a journey that is sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, and wholly original. A young Tutsi girl flees her village on the brink of the Rwandan genocide. A literary duel—and an affair—play out in the book review section of a national newspaper. A young girl learns her mother's disturbing secrets through the broken key on a typewriter. With imagination, wit, and a keen eye, Ryan O'Neill draws the essence of the human experience with a cast of characters who stick with you long after you turn the last page of this brilliant short story collection.

"You will be astounded by the hugeness of his heart, and by the breadth and depth of his vision. O'Neill is a writer of limitless imagination." —Hector Tobar, author of The Barbarian Nurseries

Ranging from Australia and Africa to Europe and Asia and back again, The Weight of a Human Heart heralds a fresh and important new voice in fiction. Ryan O'Neill takes us on a journey that is sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, and wholly original.

A young Tutsi girl flees her village on the brink of the Rwandan genocide. A literary duel—and an affair—play out in the book review section of a national newspaper. A young girl learns her mother's disturbing secrets through the broken key on a typewriter.

With imagination, wit, and a keen eye, Ryan O'Neill draws the essence of the human experience with a cast of characters who stick with you long after you turn the last page of this brilliant short story collection.

Collected stories The cockroach English as a foreign language Africa was children crying Four letter words Seventeen rules for writing a short story A speeding bullet The Chinese lesson A story in writing The genocide A short story A room without books Figures in a marriage Last words The footnote The examination Understand, understood, understood July the firsts The saved Typography The eunuch in the harem. 'The Weight of a Human Heart' turns the rules of sto rytelling on their head. A series of graphs illustrates the disintegration of a marriage, step by excruciating step. A literary feud, and an affair, play out in the book review section of a national newspaper. A young girl learns her mother's disturbing secrets.