In the five novels by Ireland's greatest comic writer, we can explore the full range of his invention, from the multi-layered madness of "At Swim-Two-Birds" to the piercing realism of "The Hard Life" and the surreal logic of "The Third Policeman". This is a world where bicycles listen to conversations, inventors search for methods of 'diluting' water, and characters play truant while novelists sleep; a world where spiteful fairies wreak havoc and heroes from legend blunder into suburban sitting-rooms. This is recognizably the Ireland of Joyce and Beckett - rowdy, high-spirited, by turns sensual and cerebral -transformed by O'Brien's unique vision.
