'All the stories move unerringly with a nervous, almost aggressive speed, creating taut emotional situations. The atmosphere and the movement from mood to mood are thoroughly Irish and thoroughly individual.'
                                                               — Ronald Hayman, Sunday Telegraph

Prophetic reviewers of John Banville's first book recognized at once 'a new talent already in command of an individual style' (Observer), 'a quite brilliant talent' (Queen) and 'a ray of hope for the futre of fiction' (New Statesman).

This significantly revised edition includes a previously uncollected story and presents persuasive evidence that John Banville has been a marvel from the beginning.