Bringing together in a single, elegant edition new stories as well as a selection of stories never published in Canada, 'Yesterday's Weather' gives us deeply moving glimpses into the lives of men and women struggling with the bonds of love, family and community in an increasingly disconnected and transient world. These stories show us a rapidly changing Ireland, a land of family and tradition, but also of organic radicchio, cruise-ship vacations, and casual betrayals. An artisan farmer seethes at the patronage of a former classmate, now a successful restauranteur; a bride cuckolds her rich husband with an old college friend - a madman who won't take his pills and plays the piano like a dream. Still more startling than loss or deception are the ways in which people respond to them: a wife eaten up by rage at her husband's infidelity must weigh the real stakes after his affair takes a tragic turn; and confronted with a similar situation, a woman decides to cheat with rather than against her man. Sharp, tender, never predictable, these are vivid stories of loss and yearning, of the ordinary defeats and unexpected delights that are found in the relationships between husbands and wives, mothers and children, and inimate strangers. - book jacket