The Cold Room

by Aoife Ní Bhraonáin

A novella

A junior pathologist's first winter at a regional Irish hospital, told in five long chapters and one short one.

Temporarily out of stock — reprinting now, back July 2026.

Print — letterpress

$34

Digital — EPUB & PDF

$12

The digital edition is available now, or order the print and we'll ship it the week it returns.

Pages

244

ISBN

978-1-959-44209-6

Published

2023

Format

Sewn cloth

From the book

Intake

On my first morning I was given a locker, a key, a pager that did not work, and the name of a man who had died on the road outside Carrick at four in the morning. Nobody said welcome. That was, I came to understand, the welcome.

The cold room was below ground and required, to enter, that you turn a wheel handle of the kind you see on submarines in old films. I had practised this gesture in my head for some weeks before I arrived. In the event it was easier than I had imagined.