This story was like a beautiful watercolor of the pastoral of Irish country living in 1916. It is a deceptively simple telling of comings and goings of characters over a year in a small farming community that appears barely to be touched by time. There neighbors and friends meet to converse, criticize and gossip; share the trouble and triumphs and tasks of ordinary lives and social occasions. Through the unfolding of personalities as its characters engage in seasonal activities and intertwined social obligations it becomes a tale of transformation. Even in a wild Irish county side, nothing remains as it was.

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When I first started reading this book I thought that perhaps it would be boring. I wasn't familiar with some of the Irish expressions and couldn't figure out what the people had to do with each other. But that didn't last long, and pretty soon I was involved in the daily life of people in a small town in Ireland who lived by a lake and I found it fascinating. I hope you do too.

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