Prophesying the coming of the Irish Dante, George Moore said that if bone of the islanders off the coast, where only Irish is spoken...
were to write a book about his island, he would rank above all living writers." This substantial collection of occasional magazine pieces by "The Islandman", if not quite placing him above all other writers, certainly confirms his place among the best of this century. His untiring intelligence, aesthetic sensibility, tough and tender humanity, and above all his sure idiomatic style, are apparent in almost all of the short tales, reminiscences and brief essays collected here. There are even a few unexpected songs. Spanning a period of 18 years, the impression of the whole is both rich and fragmentary a perfect bedtime book and an excellent job of editing.