Added note: Des Kenny of Kennys Bookshop & Art Gallery has selected my book as a recommendation for their international book parcels.
Buy my book Greetings Hero at Kennys.

I was over in Galway for the weekend of Oct 16th to be judge for the 7th annual Over the Edge Fiction Slam. It was a fantastic night, hearty thanks to Kevin Higgins & Susan Millar DuMars, and congratulations to the winner Rosaleen Hinchy.

Next morning I took off on shank’s mare to hunt down Des Kenny’s famous bookshop. Way back long ago it used to be a real-world bookshop, with a shopfront on a main street, – a real street – and a door, and you could walk inside. But the real world is in retreat these days. Reality used to be something always self-evident. Now it slips from our grasp. The virtual world gains power day by day. Kenny’s too succumbed to the Zeitgeist: move online or cease to exist in any plausible world. The war was not over; only the battlefield had changed. The fight for existence against monopolizing forces continues.

Kenny’s bookshop has been involved in the literary and artistic life of Galway since the 1940s. Today it continues to command a huge amount of respect in Ireland. Kenny’s makes its own selection book parcels of books for book clubs and readers internationally.

So I heard that the online presence has a real-world correlate, a premises and gallery somewhere out the Tuam road. I walked out and reached an industrial estate. I asked at a Subway Sandwich outlet if they knew where Kenny’s was, but they didn’t know. I asked at Elvery’s Sports. I asked at the ABC Bookshop beside Calbro Motor Factors, and I was perplexed to hear they they had never heard of Kenny’s Bookstore. My look of confusion caused a second flurry of questioning among the staff. Kenny’s yes, it was confirmed, they exist somewhere. Maybe the virtual world.

Onwards I walked, through industrial estates made for traffic. I scuttled across the road, carrying my large red suitcase. GolfsStyle, Elwood office interiors, Fat Tony’s Barber shop – what was a barbers doing here? Do cars need haircuts? I asked someone coming out if they knew of Kenny’s. Yes, of course, Kenny’s is straight down and to the left. I dug into the side pocket and pulled out a comb. Be prepared.

Kenny’s looked like any other commercial premises from the outside. But inside they have books. And Des aka Desi himself.
Des said: “We actually sell cheaper than Amazon on average. We can do that because we cut the overheads to almost zero.”
Des said: “We only actually make money on secondhand books, old books, collector’s items, rare publications.”
Des said: “I don’t actually look at reviews. I follow my own opinion.”

If you want to buy my book online, or any other book online, go to Kenny’s.

PS Kenny’s has the cheapest price anywhere for Greetings, Hero. They won’t actually earn money on it, but no workers will be exploited.