All of Aiden Mathews's stories take their frail and passionately wrong-headed narrators over the edge into the obscene and the sacrilegous. They circle dangerously around the secret places where incest, religion and poetry meet. The language is beautiful, witty and charming despite its many tricks and allusions; 'I can't think of any other writer who can give his characters such a degree of emotional and spiritual complexity' Independent on Sunday.