Kate O'Riordan, an Irish-born writer who lives and works in England, has written novels, short stories, and dramatic pieces. Her writings, centered on an in-depth exploration of human relationships, focus on the importance of boundaries between past and present and the unearthing of repressed traumas and buried secrets. Often based around an apparent conflict between different cultural stereotypes--Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland or Ireland and Britain--O'Riordan's work frequently includes a disturbing vein of barely suppressed violence hidden beneath the veneer of day-to-day life. Her concern with the hidden, and often darker, side of human life sets O'Riordan's work alongside that of other young Irish women writers such as Mary Morrissy, Anne Haverty, and Mary O'Donnell, who, as did O'Riordan, emerged during the 1990s. All of these authors use neo-Gothic portrayals of family relationships and transgenerational conflicts in order to reflect upon the problematic nature of personal...