The Untilled Field, George Moore

It’s something of a truism that the Irish are masters of the short story, so no real surprise that this collection is fantastic. The first story sets you up beautifully for the rest: it’s about an artist whose sculpture of the Virgin Mary is smashed when it is learned that a woman posed nude for it. There’s a very direct and scathing critique of the Catholic Church and its effect on the Irish (a recurring idea throughout, alongside a blistering condemnation of colonialism), but also an absolutely persuasive and in-depth portrayal of a few characters. I think it’s absolutely fair to call these stories naturalist, but they don’t have quite the same sense of inevitability that you get with, say, Zola. That is to say: sometimes the plots surprised me. And always, the prose enchanted me.