Bruce Springsteen might be the quintessential American rock musician but his songs have resonated with fans from all walks of life and from all over the world. This unique collection features reflections from a diverse array of writers who explain what Springsteen means to them and describe how they have been moved, shaped, and challenged by his music.   Contributors to Long Walk Home include novelists like Richard Russo, rock critics like Greil Marcus and Gillian Gaar, and other noted Springsteen scholars and fans such as A. O. Scott, Peter Ames Carlin, and Paul Muldoon. They reveal how Springsteen’s albums served as the soundtrack to their lives while also exploring the meaning of his music and the lessons it offers its listeners. The stories in this collection range from the tale of how “Growin’ Up� helped a lonely Indian girl adjust to life in the American South to the saga of a group of young Australians who turned to Born to Run to cope with their country’s 1975 constitutional crisis. These essays examine the big questions at the heart of Springsteen’s music, demonstrating the ways his songs have resonated for millions of listeners for nearly five decades.   Commemorating the Boss’s seventieth birthday, Long Walk Home explores Springsteen’s legacy and provides a stirring set of testimonials that illustrate why his music matters.

A stunning historical saga set in the early decades of the twentieth century which follows the lives and loves of one extraordinary family. We first meet the Goold Verschoyle children in 1915. Though there is a war going on in the world outside, they seem hardly touched by it - midnight swims, flower fairies and regatta parties form the backdrop to their enchanted childhood. But as they grow older, changes within Ireland and the wider world encroach upon the family's private paradise. Turbulent times - the Irish war of independence, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II - are woven into the tapestry upon which this magical story is spun. Events in Spain, Russia and London draw the children in different directions: one travels to Moscow to witness Communism at first had; another runs away to England to take part in the General Strike and then heads off to the Civil War in Spain; another follows the more conventional route of marriage and family. Based upon the extraordinary lives of a real-life Anglo-Irish family, Bolger's novel superbly recreates a family in flux, driven by idealism, wracked by argument and united by love and the vivid memories of childhood. 'The Family on Paradise Pier' shows Bolger at the height of his powers as a master storyteller. A spellbinding and magnificent achievement.

A year has passed since the closing of Finbar's Hotel, a down-on-its-heels hotel on the Dublin quays. Now, with a rock star as its new owner, it has once more opened its doors-and Finbar's has become an ultra-chic gathering spot. Ladies' Night at Finbar's Hotel describes one night in its newly illustrious surroundings-a night filled with adventure and comic romp. In one room a man surreptitiously helps his wife's friend get pregnant, while next door a businesswoman battles her father. And down the hall, a nun struggles with the most important mission of her life. A fabulous mix of pathos and high humor, this is a sardonic tour of the gamut of human experience told by Ireland's finest modern storytellers. Maeve Binchy has written numerous bestsellers, most recently Tara Road. Dermot Bolger is the author of six novels and edited The Vintage Book of Contemporary Irish Fiction. Clare Boylan has written six novels and several nonfiction works, including The Literary Companion to Cats. Emma Donoghue is the author of Stirfry and Kissing the Witch, among other works. Anne Haverty's writing has been short-listed for the Whitbread Award. ƒilis N' Dhuibhne has published poetry, short fiction, children's books, and two novels. Kate O'Riordan writes for stage and screen, and has written two novels including The Bray House. Deirdre Purcell recently adapted her novel Falling for a Dancer as a four-part serial for BBC television.

The first collection of plays from one of Ireland's most accomplished contemporary writers This volume contains four plays: The Lament for Arthur Cleary: "Theatrically rich and socially powerful, it takes on the lineaments of an epic voyage, a voyage into the dark heart of a city where Irish theatre has seldom been before" (Irish Times); In High Germany: "Thoughtful, comic, sad and provocative, this monologue of a lost and altered heritage ...These two plays [In High Germany and The Holy Ground] are cogent manifestations of a changing Irish world" (Irish Times); The Holy Ground: "A tour de force. It's stream of consciousness theatre at its best ...[which] develops a pace until the listener is hanging on to every syllable" (Sunday Press); Blinded by the Light: "Manically madcap and hilariously funny, it canters in a bawdy romp onto the stage, heralding the arrival of a unique comic writing talent. Energetic, perfectly timed and brilliantly observed" (Irish Press)"A writer of frenetic energy and imagination." (Sunday Times)

An ordinary man is forced to confront both his own demons and the manifestation of the supernatural beyond his comprehension and control Jeremy Furlong is a successful businessman, whose life has been carefully constructed from layer upon layer of lies. That is until now, when he is confronted by the trapped poltergeist spirit of a dead boy in the squalid flat he using to have an affair. The Passion of Jerome premiered at the Peacock stage of the Abbey Theatre in February 1999."A writer of frenetic energy and imagination." (Sunday Times)

Leopold Bloom's odyssey is a pandemonium of live music, puppets, dancing, clowning, bowler hats and kazoos. It's Ulysses as you've never imagined it before, a superbly theatrical homage to Joyce's chronicle of Dublin life and the greatest novel of all time. With his wife Molly waiting in bed for the nefarious Blazes Boylan, Leopold Bloom traverses Dublin, conversing in pubs, graveyards and brothels, enduring ridicule and prejudice as he steadfastly clings to his principles and subtly slays his dragons while drawing ever closer to his fateful encounter with the young Stephen Dedalus.