In the small Irish village where he hopes to become a full partner in the local medical practice, Barry Laverty questions his ambitions in the face of a romantic reversal, while housekeeper Kinky Kincaid dreads the loss of her status to Dr. O'Reilly's new paramour.

An epic tale-within-a-tale based on the history of Ireland finds a traditional wandering Storyteller revealing his life experiences while forging a poignant new relationship in the home of an eight-year-old boy.

"Back in 1985, Frank Mackey was a nineteen-year-old kid with a dream of escaping his family's cramped flat on Faithful Place and running away to London with his girl, Rosie Daly. But on the night they were supposed to leave, Rosie didn't show. Frank took it for granted that she'd given him the brush-off--probably because of his alcoholic father, nutcase mother, and generally dysfunctional family. He never went home again. Neither did Rosie. Then,...

During a snowstorm, Gina Moynihan reminisces the string of events that brought her the love of her life, Sean Vallely, and recalls their affair.

A crowd of siblings gathers in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother. The surviving children of the Hegarty clan are gathering for the wake of their wayward, alcoholic brother, Liam, drowned in the sea after filling his pockets with stones. He is the third of the twelve Hegarty siblings to die. His sister, Veronica, collects the body and keeps the dead man company, guarding the secret she shares with him-something that happened in their grandmother's...

"Emily Allen, a librarian on Martha's Vineyard, has always dreamed of a life of travel and adventure. So when her favorite author, Siobhan Riordan, offers her a job in Ireland, Emily jumps at the opportunity. After all, Siobhan's novels got Em through some of the darkest days of her existence. Helping Siobhan write the final book in her acclaimed series -- after a ten-year hiatus due to a scorching case of writer's block -- is a dream come true for...

"The Dead" is the final and longest story in the Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce. First published in 1904, the stories aim to capture Irish middle class life as it really was around Dublin at the turn-of-the-century. Like many of Joyce's tales in the collection, "The Dead" features a transformative epiphany, where a character experiences a sudden insight into their life that changes the way they see everything. In what...

"In the close-knit Northern Irish village of Ballybucklebo, it's said that a new baby brings its own welcome. Young doctor Barry Laverty and his wife Sue are anxiously awaiting their first child, but as the community itself prepares to welcome a new decade, the closing months of 1969 bring more than a televised moon landing to Barry, his friends, his neighbors, and his patients, including a number of sticky questions. A fledgling doctor joins the...

"From award-winning New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe, a stunning, intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions. In December 1972, Jean McConville, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known...