Colin Walsh – Kala

…interviewed by Niall McDowell

Kinlough is a seaside town on the west coast of Ireland which on first appearance is no different to dozens of others – except it’s hiding years of secrets that even its own inhabitants won’t face. The discovery of human remains forces a group of friends to revisit a chain of events that happened years ago. Helen, Joe and Mush were part of a group of pals that revolved around Kala Lanann – a motherless ​​force of nature who, after being the sun around which the group orbited, disappeared without a trace in 2003. Now, the three are forced back together again despite the different roads the last 15 years have taken them down – and all are forced to examine the part they all played in Kala’s disappearance.

Kala is Colin Walsh’s first novel in a successful career writing stories during which he won several awards including the RTÉ Francis MacManus Short Story Prize and the Hennessy Literary Award. In 2019 he was named Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year and his writing has been published in the Stinging Fly, The Irish Times and broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 and BBC Radio 4