Julian Barnes’s new selection of stories by Frank O'Connor displays to the fullest his versatility, humour and insight in tales about childhood and marriage, sex and religion, war and old age. Here, O'Connor depicts young boys convinced of their own genius or locked in hilarious rivalry with their fathers, and IRA soldiers who must make heartbreaking decisions in the midst of a baffling war. In other tales an old woman threatens to haunt her son if he fails to bury her at her old home, while a scandal threatens to ignite when a floral wreath is sent anonymously to a priest’s funeral. In these beautiful evocations of ordinary life

both comic and tragic

O'Connor portrays small moments that take us to the psychological truth at the hart of his characters.