Introduction -- Part One: For to end yet again / Samuel Beckett -- Part Two: The man-keeper / Tom Mac Intyre -- The talking trees / Sean O'Faolain -- from The killeen / Mary Leland -- from A curious street / Desmond Hogan -- from Black list, section H / Francis Stuart -- from The Christmas tree / Jennifer Johnston --Part Three: High ground / John McGahern -- Postcards / Brisget O'Connor -- A woman's hair / Bryan MacMahon -- from Balcony of Europe / Aidan Higgins -- Happiness / Mary Lavin -- Blood and water / Éilís Ní Dhuibhne -- Ojus / Shane Connaughton -- from The butcher boy / Patrick McCabe -- Villa Marta / Clare Boylan -- from Burning your own / Glenn Patterson -- Cancer / Eugene McCabe --Part Four: The ballroom of romance / William Trevor -- from Good behaviour / Molly Keane -- Last rites / Neil Jordan -- Between two shores / Bernard MacLaverty -- Heaven / Mary Beckett -- Memory and desire / Val Mulkerns -- The husband / Mary Dorcey -- What a sky / Edna O'Brien --Part Five: from The snapper / Roddy Doyle -- Oranges from Spain / David PArk -- If angels had wings / Eoin McNamee -- from Proxopera / Benedict Kiely -- Ornage horses / Maeve Kelly -- from The journey home / Dermot Bolger -- from The heather blazing / Colm Tóibín -- Mothers were all the same / Joseph O'Connor -- The sky's gone out / Sara Berkeley -- from Ripley bogle / Robert McLiam Wilson -- from Surrogate City / Hugo Hamilton -- A rock-'n'-roll death / Michael O'Loughlin -- from Remebering light and stone / Deirdre Madden -- from The engine of owl-light / Sebastian Barry -- The sight / Brian Moore --Incident on the El Camino Real / Aidan Mathews -- Part Six: Men and angels / Anne Enright -- Counterpoints / Gerardine Meaney -- The hairdresser / Leland Bardwell -- from Mefisto / John Banville -- Part Seven: The death of Matti Bonner / Dermot Healy -- Absent children / John MacKenna -- Divided attention / Mary Morrissy -- Through the field / Colum McCann.