The Beautiful Changes McCloskey, Molly €20.00 - now €16.00 20% off save €4.00 ISBN: 1 901866 81 5 Format: Size: Publication Date: 12 March 2002 Physical Copy (supplied by Lilliput Press) Add to Basket View Shopping Basket

'McCloskey's gift for capturing the precarious nature of interpersonal relations and the exquisite pain of isolated consciousnes is matched by her ability to construct startling and unpredictable plots that encompass many retrospectives and refuse orderly endings. ... The Beautiful Changes reveals the adaptability of the short story form in the hands of a skilled practitioner. Molly McCloskey has produced adept and startling fictions that skilfully probe the unwieldy profundities of the human psyche.' - Anne Fogarty, Irish Times

The title novella and four short stories in Molly McCloskey's dazzling second book vary in setting, tone and characterization, but their subject, always, is love. McCloskey writes of misbegotten relationships, the mysterious communion of brothers and sisters, and the invincible love of a father and daughter, in a voice at once witty, warm and sharp. Her characters are lonely when together, and pulled by the unfathomable imperatives of the heart when alone. From the dual quest narrative of 'The Beautiful Changes' - a daughter's quest for a lost father, and the father's quest for sobriety - to the funny and moving tales of family life and sexual misadventure in the shorter stories, Molly McCloskey shows herself to be a storyteller of the first rank.

PRAISE FOR SOLOMON'S SEAL

'The stories build their memorable world cumulatively, piece by brittle, affecting piece.' - Sylvia Brownrigg, The Times

'A poised, fluid and darkly memorable voice ... Solomon's Seal is a pleasure to read' - Dermot Bolger, Sunday Tribune

'McCloskey distills sparely yet strikingly the sexual grief, the loneliness of familiar relationships ... Hers is the sort of voice which you have to listen to - not proclaiming her talent from the rooftops, but talking slowly, quietly, and with the ring of understated truth.' - Julia Reid, Scotsman

MOLLY McCLOSKEY is the author of a previous collection of stories, Solomon's Seal. Born in Philadelphia in 1964, she now lives in Dublin.