Gaining access to the world of O'Reilly's stories is not simple, with only scraps of information or narrative offered about the characters whose sensations he communicates so beautifully. But as the startling details and images pile up, we find ourselves in terrain recognisable enough to make its strangeness even more mysterious. The urban settings are an unpredictable wilderness, as if a catastrophe has occurred which no one can quite remember or understand, while the characters, each an unreliable observer, pay intense attention to these surroundings and to their own behaviour, as if trying to recall a lost code. Behind their intensity is the memory or anticipation of heartbreak or sudden violence. There are hints in O'Reilly's style of James Kelman and of fellow Derry writer Seamus Deane, but his voice is already unmistakable. Remarkably, this is his first collection.