Stinging Fly Press

*Winner of the 2014 Guardian First Book Award *Winner of the 2014 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award *Winner of the 2014 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature

A collection that takes us to Glanbeigh, a small town in rural Ireland - a town in which the youth have the run of the place. Boy racers speed down the back lanes; couples haunt the midnight woods; young skins huddle in the cold once The Peacock has closed its doors. Here the young live hard. It matters whose sister you were seen with.

A celebration of one of The New Yorker's finest writers at the height of her power. As contemporary culture revisits with new appreciation the pioneering female voices of the past century, Maeve Brennan remains a writer whose dazzling work continues to embolden a new generation.

A lonely woman is fascinated by her new niqab-wearing neighbours; a reclusive cult-rock icon ends his days in the street where he was born; a husband and wife become enmeshed in the lives of the young couple they pay to do their cleaning and gardening. Set in contemporary East Belfast, these acutely observed short stories come charged with regret and sorrow, desire and longing. With clear-eyed compassion and wry humour, Wendy Erskine deftly lays bare the struggle to maintain control in an often brutal and unforgiving world.

In these stories – as in real life – the funny, the tender and the devastating go hand in hand. Full of warmth, the familiar and the strange, they are about what it means to live in the world, how far you can end up from where you came from, and what it means to look back.

In these stories – as in real life – the funny, the tender and the devastating go hand in hand. Full of warmth, the familiar and the strange, they are about what it means to live in the world, how far you can end up from where you came from, and what it means to look back.

"The law reports aren’t just a collection of gripping stories well told – they are important historical resources that offer insights into hundreds of years of Irish life. – Danielle McLaughlin