A fitting tribute to John B. Keane, for decades Ireland's favorite storyteller, this winning short story collection typifies the late author's folkloric imagination and storytelling arts. These are congenial tales, too, as this literary legend views the foibles and fallibilities of Irish country folk with abundant compassion as well as a shrewd, sometimes sardonic eye. Add to that Keane's glorious sense of fun and roguery that will make readers relish all the more how and why, in "Fred Rimble," Jim Conlon kills the best friend he ever had. Or how Willie Ramley determines that his future wife will be "Guaranteed Pure." Or how, to tragic as well as comic effect, a gasp, garlic, and gossip undo Denny Bruder in "The Hanging." In all, Keane uncovers the folly in the romantic pangs, exalted aspirations, misguided mischief, and everyday shortcomings of the characters in the village of his storyteller's mind—and beyond the folly finds their humanity.

John B. Keane, one of Ireland's most prolific and respected literary figures, died on 30 May 2002 at the age of 73, after a long and difficult battle with cancer. John B. Keane was born in 1928 in Listowel, County Kerry and it was here that he spent his literary career, running a pub which provided him with inspiration for his characters and ideas. This is a further collection of John B. Keane's highly successful letters. This book includes Letters of a Civic Guard, Letters of an Irish Publican, Letters of a Country Postman and Letters to the Brain. Four very different people in four very different circumstances and the thread that binds them is John B. Keane's skill at recognising the follies and weaknesses of men and women. The letter writers and their correspondents prove to be fine examples of this. Garda Leo Molair copes masterfully with all the transgressions of village life. He knows when to intervene and when to leave well alone. Yet nothing that he has learned will...

The Field is John B. Keane's fierce and tender study of the love a man can have for land and the ruthless lengths he will go to in order to obtain the object of his desire. It is dominated by Bull McCabe, one of the most famous characters in Irish writing today.

Drawing on the rich folk culture of County Kerry, John B. Keane brings new life to old customs in his portrayals of the special holiday dreams and everyday shortcomings of country people during the Christmas season. With enough good cheer to warm the heart throughout the Christmas season and the long nights of winter, Keane's playful volume revisits the Christmases eccentrically celebrated by the likes of Dotie Tupper and Johnny Naile, the doughty Canon Doyle and deaf Canon Cornelius Coodle, the amiable spendthrift Aenias Mackson and Hiccups O'Reilly, who disappears one Christmas for seven years. Keane bears delightful witness to the strengths and failings, the trials and triumphs, of the simple but not so ordinary folk of rural Ireland.