A new, genre–defying volume that explores family, marriage, motherhood, place and coming of age with singular wit and emotional clarity.What can we learn from an ordinary life observed with extraordinary skill? In The Irish Goodbye, Beth Ann Fennelly writes of the often–overlooked moments that shape a life, whether moving or perplexing or troubling or gladdening. These micro–memoirs—some as short as a sentence, some longer in form–dignify the diminutive through the act of attention. Fennelly explores her roles as a friend, wife, mother, and daughter, documenting a brush with an old flame or the devastating death of her sister in crystalline, precise sentences. Full of unexpected wit, The Irish Goodbye is a record of the interstitial interactions—encounters with strangers, quirky observations, unexpected flights of fancy—that make up a richly lived life. With keen insight and nimble prose, Fennelly invites readers to share her affirming worldview—one in which even our smallest interactions are rife with possibility.