"So says Ruthie Swain, the daughter of a dead poet. Home from college after a collapse (Something Amiss, the doctors say), she is trying to find her father through stories, her family history in Country Clare, and her own writing (with its Superabundance of Style). Ruthie turns also to the books her father left behind, his library transposed to her bedroom and stacked on the floor, which she pledges to work her way through while she's still living. In her attic room, with the rain rushing down the windows, Ruthie writes Ireland, with its weather, its rivers, its lilts, and its lows. The stories she uncovers and recounts bring back to life multiple generations buried in this soil - and they might just bring her back into the world again, too." - Cover.