From Laurence Sterne to Flann O'Brien and beyond, this anthology presents both highly familiar and relatively obscure writers from across the history of Irish fiction. It offers a fresh perspectives, and a provocative reshuffling of the literary canon.

"Irish writing is currently enjoying a renaissance. Strange, original talents are blossoming, wielding styles and perspectives as variant as the inspirations they bring to bear on their work. [This book] seeks to situate this recent flowering within the centuries-long efforts of Irish writers to experiment and to innovate, to make the form of the novel new and strange again"--

"I'm tempted to quote Nietzsche back at Rob Doyle: he's not a writer--he is dynamite! Except--like Nietzsche--he's a tremendous writer, too. And I have a suspicion that the author of this provocative and thrilling collection is going to get even better."