"Trebizond and Samarkand meant less to them than Aghadoe and Glenflesk, Tomies and Purple Mountain. They sang of those magic places as though they were drunk on the names and the music of the names and on nothing more." In Ryan's short story Siar Amach, Paddy Joe and Davy are contented old men travelling though the southwest of Ireland fishing, drinking and playing the fiddle. Their deep appreciation of language, nature and history echoes that of the author in this wonderful collection. The earliest of Ryan's stories were published in David Marcus's "New Irish Writing" page in the Irish Press in the 1970s and there are stories here from every decade since. The stories are timeless; they are suffused with Ryan's gentle appreciation of the insignificance but wonder of ordinary lives. A grandfather minds his grandchildren; a married couple revisits the coastal dunes where they fell in love; a family, the author's own, takes in and nurtures a quiet stranger.
