Give life long enough and it will solve all your problems, including the one of being alive.

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

There are no days more full than those we go back to.

She takes another long haul, lets the smoke settle in her lungs-- she has heard somewhere that cigarettes are good for grief. One long drag and you forget how to cry. The body too busy dealing with the poison.

Novels are more difficult simply because they are longer and require more juggling, but short stories are closer to perfection, if you can get the language right.

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

The real beauty in life is that beauty can sometimes occur.