Fishing the Sloe-Black River (20 page)

Cathal lights his last cigarette and thinks about how, in two days, the whole flock will leave and the digging may well have to begin all over again. Well, fuck it all anyway. Every man has his own peculiar curse. Cathal motions to his dog, lifts his shovel, then leans home toward the farmhouse in his green boots. As he walks, splatters of mud leap up on the back of his anorak. The smoke blows away in spirals from his mouth. He notices how the fencepost in the far corner of the field is leaning a little drunkenly. That will have to be fixed, he thinks, as the rain spits down in flurries.

A
LSO BY
C
OLUM
M
C
C
ANN

Dancer

Everything in This Country Must

This Side of Brightness

Songdogs

FISHING THE SLOE-BLACK RIVER
. Copyright © 1993 by Colum McCann. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address Picador, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McCann, Colum, 1965–

Fishing the sloe-black river : stories / Colum McCann.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-312-42338-1

1. Ireland—Social life and customs—Fiction. 2. Irish Americans—Social life and customs—Fiction. I. Title.

PR6063.C335F57  1996

823'.914—dc20

96-19779
CIP

First published in the United Kingdom by Phoenix House

First published in the United States by Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company

First Picador Edition: February 2004

eISBN 9781466848689

First eBook edition: May 2013