cover of the first edition is "spiritual despair", which perhaps explains the ruthlessness and strangeness of Nature, its inappropriateness for human sensitivity and the ease with which evil is perpetrated even in intimate relationships (between dysfunctional lovers or with oppressive parents). One hallmark of the style is how scenes are dramatized with cold detachment and without authorial comment, assisting the realism. A recurring motif in these and later stories highlights the plight of a very young couple struggling to cope with pregnancy. The vision shares with some American Catholic literature and some strands of Feminism a brutal vision of male sexuality. Other themes include: sexual rage, violence, frustration and taboos; poverty, prostitution and abuse; psychedelia; transcendentalism, magic and the occult. Awards and honours 1995 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature 2000 Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize References 1966 births Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Alumni of the University of East Anglia Writers from Manchester 20th-century British writers 21st-century British writers 20th-century writers from Northern Ireland 21st-century writers from Northern Ireland 20th-century Irish writers 21st-century Irish writers 21st-century Irish male writers Living people