I picked this collection of short stories up in a wonderful little bookshop I found on Trinity Bar on a trip to Dublin last year, in the little 'local writers' section. I didn't hold out great hopes for it, assuming it was one of those books which is stocked just because it's local - I was wrong! What a fabulous set of stories. I was also put off by the comparison to Alice Munro (!!!) on the back cover. Come off it, an obscure Irish writer's first short story collection, and Anne Enright is comparing her to (in my opinion) one of the greatest short story writers ever?

And yet... Alice Munro she isn't...but Mary Costello definitely has something very special, and her stories do remind me of Munro's in their unflinching sparseness. They are beautiful...but often utterly desolate, full of loneliness and isolation hiding amidst daily life. Another thing I enjoyed here was the extent to which these stories are so deeply rooted in Ireland; Dublin is the big, faraway city, and there is the constant pull of the green hills and ocean of the west of Ireland.

Costello hasn't published anything else so far, but I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for more. ( )