The end of the world and other stories

Born in Listowel, Co. Kerry, in 1909, Bryan MacMahon was for most of his adult life schoolmaster of the local Boys National School until his retirement in 1975. He has written a number of novels and plays as well as two celebrated volumes of short stories - long out of print -îThe Lion Tamer and The Red Petticoat. The "New York Times" called Bryan MacMahon "the purest, the richest of Irish voices . . .' and praised his stories as being 'superior not only because of the richness of imagination he brings to them and because he creates a language and a world all his own, but because he is able to convey through moments in the lives of simple Irish people values that are universal, that transcend geography and time, and concern men and women where they live." This collection makes available again the cream of Bryan MacMahon's stories from his two earlier volumes along with hitherto unpublished stories and others not previously collected in book form.