In Theodore Deppe’s eighth book of poems, lyricism and a gift for narrative come together to explore the challenges and gifts of daily life on the coast of Connemara in the west of Ireland. Compassionate, humorous, utterly serious, these poems acknowledge the darkness of our times but also celebrate what they can. Deppe introduces us to remarkable people at moments of change: an outsider artist and a twelve-year-old Bosnian refugee who meet in hospital; the singer Meat Loaf reclaiming his career in the wilds of Ireland; and Olivier Messiaen, who composed his ‘Quartet for the End of Time’ in a prisoner-of-war camp.