The stories in this collection by Keith Ridgway bring to life a strange, changing Dublin, full of pathos and wry humour; a city haunted by its future as much as by its past. Deftly drawn and full of superbly realised characters, these stories uncover the workings of a variety of relationships - between people, place and time. Ridgway's characters negotiate their way through love, lust, anger, religious obsession, language and absence, and their stories are told with a mastery of narrative and dialogue which make this a refreshing, memorable and often very funny collection.