Kiely, Benedict: The Penguin Book of Irish Short Stories

'Do the Irish have, in relation to anybody else, any special capacity for the short story?' In this collection of thirty-eight short stories covering many generations and moods of Irish writing, this question is emphatically answered in the affirmative. These mercurial, intoxicating, witty and sometimes sad stories range from Lady Gregory's moving retelling of an ancient love story through to the extraordinary and prolific William Trevor.