The Deportees and Other Stories


The Deportees and Other Stories is the first short story collection by Irish writer Roddy Doyle first published by Jonathan Cape in 2007. All the stories were written for Metro Éireann, a multicultural paper aimed at Ireland's immigrant population and explore their experiences. The stories were written in 800 word chapters and published monthly; as Doyle explains in the foreword to the book:
The stories have never been carefully planned. I send off a chapter to the Metro Eireann editor Chinedu Onyejelem, and, often, I haven't a clue what's going to happen next, And I don't care too much, until the deadline begin's to tap me on the shoulder. It's a fresh, small terror, once a month. I live a very quiet life; I love that monthly terror.

Stories

Reception

  • Tim Martin writing in The Independent was surprised at the collections wide range but remarked that some of the stories appeared understandably rushed. He praised its sincerity and 'good cheer'.
  • Ian Sansom in The Guardian wrote "The stories are often very funny and rumbustious...When these stories are good, and they often are, they're absolutely hilarious".
  • Erica Wagner in The New York Times said "Doyle wrote them in response to the urban legends he’d started to hear about his country’s newest inhabitants: Muslims slaughtering sheep in their backyards, a Polish woman who turns her flat into a brothel. In reacting to such squalid stories, Doyle sometimes goes too far in the opposite direction, and at first it might seem as if there’s something rose-tinted about the view he wants to take...the optimism can seem forced. Sad to acknowledge, perhaps, that it’s the darker stories that work best."
  • Cressida Connelly ends her review in The Spectator with "The Deportees may not be Doyle at his very best, but it’s still a highly enjoyable read".

Adaptations