Changeling, and Other Stories

A chorus girl stands accused of murder. In the title story "Changeling," Anna Janssen faces trial for killing her former lover, Alastair de Vries, as the courtroom becomes a stage where secrets unravel and public judgment reigns. Donn Byrne constructs this drama with the precision of a seasoned storyteller, weaving together the spectacle of trial by media with the intimate transformations of a woman caught between her past and her fate. The collection, written in the early 20th century, moves through stories of crime, passion, and the complicated terrain of human connection. Byrne, an American writer of Irish descent who won prizes for both boxing and Gaelic literature, brings a poet's ear and a fighter's directness to these tales. The stories endure because they ask uncomfortable questions about guilt, desire, and what society owes those it judges. For readers who appreciate literary courtroom dramas with psychological depth, or anyone seeking forgotten fiction that punches above its weight.