In Empire, these interconnected stories are filled with an effortlessly poetic confidence, bringing the reader back to an earlier Ireland with humor, insight, unexpected moments of revelation and clear contemporary resonances. The stories are shot through with energy and attention with the exoticism of early twentieth century Burma to Ireland in a flux. Its a historical book that reveals the complex dynamics of human relationships, the private struggle for self determination and the public one for political freedom in the colonial past by both men and women.