Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year

Winner 2023

Kala

Kala

By Colin Walsh

In the seaside town of Kinlough, on Ireland’s west coast, three old friends are thrown together for the first time in years. They – Helen, Joe and Mush – were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003,withmotherless, reckless Kala Lanann as their group’s white-hot centre. Soon after that summer’s peak, Kala disappeared without a trace.


Now it’s fifteen years later. Human remains have been discovered in the woods. Two more girls have gone missing. As past and present begin to collide, the estranged friends are forced to confront their own complicity in the events that led to Kala’s disappearance, and to try to stop Kinlough’s violent patterns repeating themselves once again…

 

Against the backdrop of a town suffocating on its own secrets, in a story that builds from a smoulder to a stunning climax, Kala brilliantly examines the sometimes brutal costs of belonging, as well as the battle in the human heart between vengeance and forgiveness, despair and redemption. 

 

About Colin Walsh...

Colin Walsh’s short stories have won several awards including the RTE Francis MacManus Short Story Prize and the Hennessy Literary Award. In 2019 he was named Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year.

Explore the 2023 winners

TheJournal.ie Best Irish Published Book of the Year
Dubray Non-Fiction Book of the Year
Bookstation Lifestyle Book of the Year
Cookbook of the Year
Eason Sports Book of the Year, in association with Ireland AM
Bookselling Ireland Biography of the Year
The Last Word Listeners' Choice Award
Specsavers Children's Book of the Year (Junior)
Specsavers Children's Book of the Year (Senior)
International Education Services Teen & Young Adult Book of the Year, in honour of John Treacy
An Post Irish Bookshop of the Year
Foras na Gaeilge Irish Language Fiction Book of the Year Award
Writing.ie Short Story of the Year
Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year
National Book Tokens Popular Fiction Book of the Year
Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year
Eason Novel of the Year
Listowel Writers' Week Poem of the Year