A Brief Inhalation

A Brief Inhalation is Cork-born poet, essayist and activist Daragh Fleming's warm, meditative and often laugh-out-loud funny treatise on grief, loss, discomfort and coming-of-age. Covering subjects as diverse as the strange and melancholy beauty of inherited clothing, inner city skateboarding,  ADHD, childhood snake rearing, the world of social (and anti-social) media, and all too brief interludes with mysterious strangers who leave lasting impressions, Fleming, with trademark wit and honesty weaves his way from his home in Ireland on travels through Barcelona, Prague, London and Lyon observing new and unfamiliar locales through the eyes of an outsider searching for connection. Part creative manifesto, part travelogue, part personal memoir, there are shades of early Richard Linklater in these tales of missed romantic opportunity and youthful misadventure with a roll call of unforgettable characters who leap off the page.

  - Lucy Holme

These diary-like episodes show Fleming's fearlessness, exposing his young heart's frailties and transgressions with the art and honesty of a poet.

  - Paul McVeigh

A Brief Inhalation is a book that you will, as the title demands, inhale as Daragh fumbles his way, disarmingly, through Europe and his emotions. Reminding you with every carefully chosen word, every cautionary tale, that the only person who can save you is you.

  - Kate Durrant

Throughout the impactful, soul-baring essays in A Brief Inhalation, Daragh Fleming shares with the reader personal experiences ranging from the sublime to the surreal. With a twist of deadpan humour and a poetic sensibility, he harnesses a tender honesty to write about navigating love and friendship in the digital age, the trials of burgeoning sexuality and finding connection among strangers abroad. This is a deeply human and intimate collection of memories, ruminations and revelations, penned by a writer whose greatest strength is his willingness to be vulnerable in a world that doesn't always reward vulnerability. 

  - Aoife Barry