'Mary Lavin's stories... and though the Irish short story was a dauntingly well-established form she succeeded in reinventing it with this, her debut collection, winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, which exhibits a Chekhovian gift for the meaning of small things, contrary behaviours and emotions.

A collection of ten stories that depict the rural mid-lands of Ireland and their people. Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, it deals with the meaning of small things, contrary behaviours and emotions.