Preface.- Acknowledgements.- Interruptive Narratives: Emergent Voices and Haunted Presents.- Posting the Present: Modernity and Modernization in Glenn Patterson's Fat Lad (1992) and Robert McLiam Wilson's Eureka Street (1996).- Secret Hauntings: Seamus Deane's Reading in the Dark (1996), Joseph O'Connor's The Salesman (1998), Jennifer Johnston's Fool's Sanctuary, Mary Leland's The Killeen (1985) and Linda Anderson's To Stay Alive (1984).- Mimicry, Authority and Subversion: Brian Moore's The Magician's Wife (1998), Emma Donoghue's Slammerkin (2000) and John McGahern's Amongst Women (1990).- Unspoken desires: Jennifer Johnston's later novels, Emma Donoghue's Stir-fry (1994) and Kathleen Ferguson's The Maid's Tale (1994).- Fetishing Absence: Dermot Bolger's Father's Music (1997) and Emily's Shoes (1992).

- 'Mater Dolorasa': Abject Mothers in Roddy Doyle's The Snapper (1990) and Mary Morrissy's Mother of Pearl (1996).- Limit and Transgression: Roddy Doyle's The Woman Who Walked into Doors (1996), Patrick McCabe's The Butcher Boy (1992) and William Trevor's Felicia's Journey (1994).- Return to Silence and Beyond: Speculative Narrative in Bernard MacLaverty's Grace Notes (1997) and John Banville's Birchwood (1973).- Afterword.- Appendix: Time Chart.- Select Bibliography.- Index.