A first rate collection of short stories from the critically acclaimed author of House of Splendid isolation and Down by the RiverWhen all the convent girls were in love with Clark Gable...When bachelors rose on lonely bicycles, and jam was a luxury...In this excellent collection of short stories, Edna O'Brien powerfully evokes the sensations of childhood and adolescence in Ireland - the smells and tastes , the fears and joys, the sadness and the confusions.