Colm Toibin weaves through family relationships in these nine short stories, and uses changes in situations to bring out the best, and worst, in his characters.

In the first story, the Use of Reason, an art thief struggles to understand his proud, yet betraying, mother. She unwittingly tells an undercover policeman of her son's dodgy dealings, causing him to pull out of selling the steal of his life - a Rembrandt.

As each story unfolds, becoming more intriguing by the page, we see a man bury his mother, and set out on a beach weekend of a different kind, filled with drugs, booze and sexual encounters.

Another man is faced with meeting his mother for the first time as she performs in a pub where his friends' band are also playing, leaving him with a life-changing decision to make - should I stay, or should I go?

The most heart-warming tale is that of a young boy, Miquel, who loses his brother to the army, and just two weeks later finds his alcoholic mum has walked out of the home to her certain doom after being denied drink by her husband.

Another boy then joins the household to help with daily chores, and turns Miquel's world upside down again.

Toibin's style - revealing just a snippet of someone's life - is highly effective in some of the stories, yet can be frustrating in others where questions are left unanswered and the narrative has therefore seemed almost pointless.

Although each section of the book seems to unravel complex twists in personalities and home life which are certain to stir readers' empathy at some point, there are also strong sexual undertones and graphic scenes which add nothing to plots, and seem at stages to be unnecessarily controversial. Strong language is also used in parts - if easily offended, give it a miss.