'There's great power in talking, but there's greater power in laughing. Even the best doctor in the world would be hard pushed to find a treatment with better medicinal properties than a good laugh. This is why you can't beat the wit of real-life Irish stories and why I have filled this book with various incidents that occurred throughout my family's lives - some humorous, some poignant, some heartbreaking - but each one of them is the God's honest truth. I hope the stories in this book will entertain you and distract you from your troubles for a bit.' Michael Healy-Rae The biggest regret of Michael Healy-Rae's life was a time he didn't talk when somebody needed him the most. After that, he vowed to never stop talking, listening and trying to really hear what people were saying. In his first book, which is neither political nor a memoir, Michael celebrates the power of talk to forge real human connections and sustain us. In a collection of true stories that are sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant and sometimes heartbreaking, he follows in the tradition of the great Kerry storytellers with a collection that truly captures the heartbeat of rural Ireland.

'The story focuses on love, trust, and sacrifice, against a backdrop of the cruelty of war' STEVE JOHNSON As a quaint old Norman church bathed in the late morning sunshine, a young bride waits anxiously for her groom. Anna, a German of Roma origin is stepping into a new life in London. She will finally escape the horrors of her past. When Anna flees the death camps of 1930s Germany to England, she is relieved. But events in her adopted homeland throw her best-laid plans in disarray. This is her story. It's a story about hope and heartbreak, love and hate, anger and confusion, blind prejudice and intolerance, and even redemption. Sam Martin's gritty prose tells a sensitive story. Seamlessly, he gives a well-rounded view of the war on the home front; its claustrophobic, tense atmosphere, the prevailing opinions of the day, and the seismic decisions taken by those in power. Just hope what happens to Anna, never happens to you.

It has been ten years since Rachael Keogh was catapulted into the public consciousness, when a shocking image of her needle-ravaged arms - skin burnt from injecting heroin into her wasted veins - made front pages around the country. Desperate for help, she made a public appeal to get one of 27 detox beds in Ireland so that she could reclaim her life from the drugs that had ravaged it. What followed was an extraordinary story of grit and determination as she embarked on her recovery journey. Her story became an instant bestseller and has resonated with readers ever since. This edition contains a new introduction from Rachael where she reflects on her story and considers what has changed for her and in the drugs culture in Ireland over the last decade. 'The best book by far about the drugs explosion in Dublin' Irish Independent 'This book should be on the school curriculum' Evening Echo