. . . Quite simply the most remarkable collection of poems by an Irish poet in a year which gave us important new collections by such as Heaney, Muldoon and Kinsella.'
          — Terence Brown, Poetry Ireland Review

'The longer pieces . . . are virtuoso feats of controlled association . . . the short poems . . . are, as much for their exactness and composure as for their undertow of loss and fright, indispensable.'
                                         — Alan Jenkins, The Observer

'Ciaran Carson is a superb storyteller in verse, comparable with R.S. Thomas, Robert Frost or Patrick Kavanagh . . . This is a marvellous book: calm, sad, incisive, and, at times, very funny.'
                                                — The Sunday Tribune