Tyler Hill's collection of short stories and photographs of Ireland, Beneath the Clay, brings to the American public Mr.Hill's personal experience in a now lost period of Irish history. With the new millenium and a changed economy, the Ireland Mr.Hill describes no longer exists, but is documented ever so carefully here. Photographs as well as phrases in Beneath the Clay are shaped with so much subtlety that one has to double back repeatedly to grasp their full meaning; by comparison, at times, verbatim conversations speak for themselves. The final effect for the reader is that each story, each image, is an interlude in the life of the author to which any of us can relate, leaving us with a need to experience more of Mr.Hill's vision of Ireland.