Recent years have witnessed an extraordinary growth in the richness and diversity of Irish fiction, with the publication of highly original and consistently challenging work by both new and established writers. Contemporary Irish Fiction provides an invaluable introduction to this exciting but largely uncharted area of literary criticism by bringing together 12 accessible, authoritative and stimulating essays by leading critics from Ireland, Britain and North America. Using a variety of critical methods and theoretical approaches, the contributors examine changing fictional narratives of Ireland, and offer informed analyses of the textual representation of such concepts as exile, political violence, gender and sexuality, motherhood amd urban life. The volume contains detailed assessments of such distinctive and distinguished writers as Brian Moore, John McGahern, Edna O'Brien, John Banville, Bernard Mac Laverty, Patrick McCabe, Colm Toibin, Glenn Patterson, Deirdre Madden and Emma Donoghue.