'A solid gold treat from top to tail. A tremendous set of stories by the great Irish playwright' John Self, The Observer A fake! A quack! A charlatan! Get a grip on yourself, woman! We’ll say another rosary and then I’ll leave you home.’Stories of Ireland is a brilliant, colourful compendium of mid-century Irish experience from one of Ireland’s greatest ever writers, Brian Friel. Demonstrating all of Friel’s peerless instinct for voice, scene, and the uncanny mystery found in the everyday, these tales tell of beauty, struggle and discovery: from the drowning of a man in the bog-black waters of Lough Keeragh, to the camaraderie of teenage potato gathers in County Tyrone, and from the careful work of the German War Graves Commission in Glenn na fuiseog, to trawlermen’s talk of sunken gold off the coast of Donegal.Selected by Friel himself, and introduced by acclaimed author Louise Kennedy, this charming, heartful collection truly offers some of the best stories ever written.'Some of the best stories ever written. They are everything short stories should be – deft, skilfully written, funny and quite often breathlessly sad' Edna O'Brien