Burning Bright

Ron Rash

Burning Bright by Ron Rash (Paperback ISBN 9780857861177) book cover

Available as Paperback

Winner of the 2010 Frank O’Connor Award, BURNING BRIGHT confirms Ron Rash ‘could sit comfortably beside Cormac McCarthy on any bookshelf’ (Guardian)

A FARMER and his wife fall on hard times. They haven’t lost everything the way others have, but they have lost enough. Their hope for a better future comes under threat when they discover an intruder on their land.

A WOMAN from a small town marries an outsider. Her love for him battles with her suspicions that he is the source of the fires ravaging the mountains.

A YOUNG BOY, neglected by his parents, sits in the remains of a crashed plane and lovingly tends to two frozen bodies.

These remarkable stories and many more can be found in Burning Bright, an award-winning collection that captures the complexities of a place and conjures characters that will burn bright in your mind long after you have finished reading.


“The dozen stories [in Burning Bright]…have led to justifiable comparisons with Raymond Carver and Cormac McCarthy. … These are tales that put you in another place, another kind of life. Recommended”
daily Mail

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“Rash tells great stories, raw and powerful, but he is above all, an instinctive writer. These narratives, whether told in his laconic first person, or in a detached third-person voice, are well served by his flawless use of language. Every word carries meaning and intent … Rash possesses a realist’s vision that resounds with truth”
irish Times

“Rash’s prose is at once strong and supple, masculine and poetic, and lit up by a wealth of precise physical detail. … His power of conveying landscape is exemplary, and he has a sure understanding of the measure and constraints of the short-story form”
sunday Times

“An exciting collection of short stories … delivered with such a surety of hand and such a considered distillation of the human spirit as to warrant the comparisons to Faulkner and Carver”
independent On Sunday

“Technically absolutely beautiful - incredibly well-wrought…[Rash] is a real storyteller, a real craftsman.”
Nadine O’regan
judge Of The Frank O’connor Short Story Award And Books Editor Of The Sunday Business Post


Ron Rash

Ron Rash is an award-winning poet, short-story writer and novelist. He is the author of several story collections and novels, including Serena, a New York Times Bestseller, and The Cove, also published by Canongate. He lives in the Appalachian Mountains, USA.