There are fewer and fewer Jews in Ireland, but we still have one of the most famous Jewish characters in literary history, of course, in Leopold Bloom.

A lot of people think that writers are much cleverer than they actually are. No, they're not. But they're emotionally clever, and they go into a character, and they feel something that they weren't entirely aware of beforehand.

This is not my life. These are not my cobwebs. This is not the darkness I was designed for.

Every man with his own peculiar vice. His will hardly rock heaven or hell.

We stumble on, thinks Jaslyn, bring a little noise into the silence, find in others the ongoing of ourselves. It is almost enough.

Anakana Schofield is part of a new wave of wonderful Irish fiction-international in scope and electrically alive.

Literature can remind us that not all life is already written down: there are still so many stories to be told.