This dazzling anthology, edited and introduced by Dermot Bolger, is a splendidly comprehensive and up-to-the-minute collection of the finest recent fiction from a nation of master storytellers. This collection of astonishing breadth reveals a literature of genuine global stature, as ancient as the Irish Sea.

Contributors and stories include: John Banville, from Mefisto ; Leland Bardwell, "The Hairdresser"; Sebastian Barry, from The Engine of Owl-Light ; Mary Beckett, "Heaven"; Samuel Beckett, "For to End Yet Again"; Sara Berkeley, "The Sky's Gone Out"; Dermot Bolger, "The Journey Home"; Claire Boylan, "Villa Marta"; Shane Connaughton, "Ojus"; Mary Dorcey, "The Husband"; Roddy Doyle, from The Snapper ; Anne Enright, "Men and Angels"; Hugo Hamilton, from Surrogate City ; Dermot Healy, "The Death of Matti Bonner"; Aidan Higgins, from Balcony of Europe ; Desmond Hogan, from A Curious Street ; Jennifer Johnston, from The Christmas Tree ; Neil Jordan, "Last Rights"; Molly Kean, Patrick McCabe, from The Butcher Boy ; Brian Moore, "The Sight"; Edna O'Brien, "What a Sky"; William Trevor, "The Ballroom of Romance"; Val Mulkerns, "Memory and Desire"; Robert McLiam Wilson, from Ripley Bogle , and many more.