<DIV>Claire Keegan&#8217;s brilliant debut collection, <I>Antarctica</I>, was a <I>Los Angeles Times</I> Book of the Year, and earned her resounding accolades on both sides of the Atlantic. Now she has delivered her next, much-anticipated book, <I>Walk the Blue Fields</I>, an unforgettable array of quietly wrenching stories about despair and desire in the timeless world of modern-day Ireland.&nbsp; In the never-before-published story &#8220;The Long and Painful Death,&#8221; a writer awarded a stay to work in Heinrich B&#246;ll&#8217;s old cottage has her peace interrupted by an unwelcome intruder, whose ulterior motives only emerge as the night progresses. In the title story, a priest waits at the altar to perform a marriage and, during the ceremony and the festivities that follow, battles his memories of a love affair with the bride that led him to question all to which he has dedicated his life; later that night, he finds an unlikely answer in the magical healing powers of a seer.<BR>A masterful portrait of a country wrestling with its past and of individuals eking out their futures, <I>Walk the Blue Fields</I> is a breathtaking collection from one of Ireland&#8217;s greatest talents, and a resounding articulation of all the yearnings of the human heart.</DIV>