Book description
A woman walks the streets of Manhattan and contemplates with
exquisite longing the precarious affair she has embarked on, amidst
the grandeur and cacophony of the cityscape; a young Irish girl and
her mother are thrilled to be invited to visit the glamorous
Coughlan's but find - for all the promise of their green gorgette,
silver shoes and fancy dinner parties - they leave disappointed; an
Irishman in north London retraces his life as a young lad with his
mates digging the streets and dreaming of the apocryphal gold, an
outside both in Ireland and England, yet he carries the lodestar of
his native land. A collection characterised by all of Edna O'Brien's
trademark lyricism, powerful evocations of place and a glorious and an
often heart-breaking grasp of people and their desires and contradictions.
Since her debut novel, The Country Girls, Edna O'Brien has
written over twenty works of fiction along with biographies of James
Joyce and Lord Byron. She is the recipient of many awards including
the Irish PEN Lifetime achievement Award, the American National Art's
Gold Medal and the Ulysses Medal. Born and raised in the west of
Ireland she has lived in London for many years.
