Claire Keegan's brilliant debut collection, Antarctica, was named a Los Angeles Times Book of the Year and earned her resounding accolades on both sides of the Atlantic. She continues her outstanding work with this new collection of quietly wrenching stories of despair and desire in modern-day Ireland.

In "The Long and Painful Death," a writer awarded a stay to work in Heinrich Boll's old cottage has her peace interrupted by an unwelcome intruder whose ulterior motives emerge as the night progresses. In the title story, a priest waits at the altar to perform a marriage-and battles his memories of a love affair that led him to question all to which he has dedicated his life. And in "Dark Horses," a man seeks solace at the bottom of a bottle as he mourns both his empty life and his lost love.

A masterful portrait of a country wrestling with its past and of individuals struggling toward their futures, Walk the Blue Fields is a breathtaking collection from "that rarest of writers-someone I will always want to read," and a resounding articulation of all the yearnings of the human heart (Irish Times).