A change of scene — Elizabeth Cullinan

Ann Clarke, at twenty-six, wants a breather from New York. The time is the early 1960s, and she chooses to spend a year in Dublin, a city whose plain surfaces conceal baroque subtleties of mood and style. People there extend themselves easily, and as easily turn away.

This novel explores the influence that places have on states of mind and heart, and examines the process by which people come to feel at home. Among new friends, Ann senses the kinship between frivolity and seriousness. Oona Ross, the chaotic and generous novelist; Tomas O'Domhnaill and his rakish newspaper cronies; the fiercely timid poet, Jim Larkin; Michael Flynn, the modern patriot; Stella Philbin, the reluctant landlady who clings to her fashionable ways -- each draws Ann in a different direction.

All eventually send her back where she came from, but with the invigorating awareness that one's best understanding of the world can come in the course of seeking diversion.

Containing the story and participating in it is the city of Dublin: careless, civilized, profane, pious, cozy, austere -- glittering in the rain.