New Irish Short Stories

''He is among you, faith. That is all that matters. You can look into those two blue eyes that bear the light of one close to death, the contours of a face so gaunt it's just bones pushing out skin like tentpoles under tarpaulin. You can watch his bony fingers twang the strings and hear the truth of his heart and the raw sing in his mouth like the call of a wounded old wolf. You can mend.
And if only for this hour are you consoled and mended, then this hour only it must be.''
(From The Blacklight Ballroom by Peter Murphy)

A few gems in this book, but a lot of filler too...many of the stories didn't do much for me. I loved Winter by Dermot Bolger and Somewhere in Minnesota by Orfhlaith Foyle.

If all the stories are as good as the first, 'Beer Trip to Llandudno', this is going to be a good read.