Chestnut Street / Maeve Binchy.

Some stories previously published, 1996-2010.

Dolly's mother -- It's only a day -- Fay's new uncle -- A problem of my own -- All that matters -- Joyce and the blind date -- Liberty Green -- The cure for sleeplessness -- Miss Ranger's reward -- Decision in Dublin -- The wrong caption -- Star Sullivan -- Taxi men are invisible -- A card for Father's Day -- The gift of dignity -- The investment -- The leap of faith -- Lilian's hair -- Flowers from Grace -- The builders -- Bucket Maguire -- The older man -- Philip and the flower arrangers -- Reasonable access -- By the time we get to Clifden -- The women who righted wrongs -- The sighting -- The lottery of the birds -- Madame Magic -- Say nothing -- Eager to please -- Seeing things clearly -- Fair exchange -- The window box -- Finn's future -- One night a year.

Just around the corner from St. Jarlath's Crescent (which readers will recognize from Minding Frankie) is Chestnut Street, where neighbors come and go. Behind their closed doors we encounter very different people with different life circumstances, occupations, and sensibilities -- Bucket Maguire, the window cleaner, who must do more than he bargained for to protect his son; Nessa Byrne, whose aunt visits from America every summer and turns the house, and Nessa's world, upside down; Lilian, the generous girl with the big heart and a fiancé whom no one approves of; Melly, whose gossip about the neighbors helps Madame Magic, a self-styled fortune-teller, get everyone on the right track; Dolly, who discovers more about her perfect mother than she ever wanted to know; and Molly, who learns the cure for sleeplessness from her pen pal from Chicago.