10 h 33 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when love and luck lead you from city streets toward the old world of Irish legend?
In Changeling, and Other Stories, Donn Byrne brings together thirteen tales of Irish life, love and the unexpected. The collection moves between city streets, the stage and older legends. Affection, loyalty to place and the strange turns of chance give these short pieces their shape, with each story offering its own mood.
Byrne’s musical voice ties these different worlds together. His sentences rise and fall like speech, drawing on Irish tale-telling and its warmth. Here, the way a story unfolds matters as much as what happens. You can read one tale, let its mood settle, then return for another without following a single continuous plot.
What you’ll discover
- A voice worth lingering over Hear the rhythms of Irish speech in a lyrical style that invites you to linger.
- Love and sudden chance Explore affection and the unexpected turns that can change the course of a life.
- City streets and stages Step into tales shaped by the busy world of cities and their theatres.
- The pull of old legends Follow the collection beyond city life toward the older world of Irish myth.
- A story at a time Enjoy each colourful piece on its own, with room to savour its distinct mood.
Who will love it
Readers who like short tales with an Irish ear, sudden changes of heart, old legends retold with a smile, and settings from Broadway to Thebes. Anyone who enjoys a storyteller by the fire.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A silent lawyer lets a policeman speak
- McCarthy holds to his duty
- A returning son finds home richer than imagined
- A hard mill owner meets a woman who stands her ground
- A bridge in the Andes asks for something
- Two Irish estates and the people who love them
- A would-be author and a boxer's father
- Old legends retold with warmth and humour
- Two tales of justice beyond the courts
Who’s who
- Anna JanssenA former Broadway chorus girl on trial for murder, who now looks like a calm, healthy, changed woman.
- Thomas McCarthyA New York policeman, strict about duty, who guards his prisoner across the Pacific.
- Howard DoneganThe great criminal lawyer who refuses to cross-examine and asks the court to hear one witness in full.
- Willie John GrantAn Irish grocer in Brooklyn who comes home expecting to impress his family and learns what he overlooked.
- Eunice DoranA strong-willed neighbour who runs her late father's farm and tells Grant the truth he needs.
- Aleck RobertsonA stubborn Belfast linen maker who has never thought of his workers as people.
- Jeanie LindsayA mill worker who loves Aleck but will not stand against her own people.
- Simon LovatA Scottish engineer who builds a great stone bridge in the Andes and feels it demanding something of him.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 10 h 33 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 6 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Wechselbalg und andere Erzählungen
by Donn Byrne · 1923
A courtroom hears a policeman's tale of years alone on a Pacific island with the woman he arrested.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What does a policeman say after nine years alone on a Pacific island with the woman he arrested for murder? The stories travel from New York courtrooms to Ulster farms, an Andean gorge, Irish hunting fields and the ancient lands of Solomon and Samson.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A silent lawyer lets a policeman speak
The opening story, Changeling, is set in a New York courtroom in January. Anna Janssen is on trial for shooting Alastair de Vries, a rich Broadway playboy, ten years earlier. The facts are plain and the witnesses are sure, yet the calm, sunburned woman in the dock looks nothing like the chorus girl they describe.
Her lawyer, Howard Donegan, is the most feared cross-examiner of his day. He does not question a single witness. He dozes, then rises to ask that the next witness, Officer Thomas McCarthy, tell his own story in his own way. McCarthy arrested her in Tahiti, and the crowd leans in to hear about the voyage home.
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What is Changeling and Other Stories about?
It is a collection of thirteen tales by Donn Byrne, mostly about Irish people at home and abroad.
Who wrote Changeling and Other Stories and when?
Donn Byrne writes these tales of love, pride and unexpected encounters.
What does the title Changeling mean?
In the title story, the word points to Anna Janssen, who seems to have become a different person from the chorus girl the witnesses describe. A changeling in folklore is a substituted person.
The author
Donn Byrne
1889–1928 · Irish novelist
Donn Byrne was an Irish novelist and short-story writer, born in New York in 1889 and raised in Ireland. He later lived in the United States before returning to Ireland. His books include Messer Marco Polo (1921) and The Wind Bloweth (1922). He died in a car accident in Ireland in 1928.
More by Donn Byrne
All 2 booksMore like this
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