In his new collection of short stories, Any Kind Of Broken Man, Roger Granelli presents convincing characters in rural and post-industrial Welsh communities, while mostly avoiding the stereotypes associated with them.

The pacing isn’t always spot on, and important plot turns are occasionally treated so lightly they can be missed without perfect attention. One character’s coming to terms with death does not mean the reader can experience it with the same brevity.

The biggest strength of Any Kind Of Broken Man, though, is the depth of quirky personalities in this collection: despite the short length of each story, they are far more than targets for quick laughs. Unusual behaviours are accounted for by the complexity of living through shifting and stagnant economic landscapes. From Emrys, the disillusioned old gentleman in the pub lounge who sleeps in a coffin, to the carer who owns the town’s drug trade, or the gun-wielding jazz musician bored of bebop and seeking new thrills, Granelli paints his communities with respect and an understanding of the motivations behind every action, scandalous or mundane. 

In The Book Of Cowlin, a writer, seeing Emrys as one of the “Welsh caricatures” in the pub, wonders whether the sheep on the hillside know they’re clichés. Under Granelli’s pen, they too would surely turn out to be rich in personality with a rural Welsh touch.