The Aran Islands, three barren limestone rocks stretching across the mouth of Galway Bay on Ireland's west coast, are among the most finely wrought land-masses in the western world.

Their antiquity, diversity and cultural richness have made them a source of fascination for writers, romantics, naturalists, linguists, archaeologists, anthropologists and artists, provoking a variety of responses now inscribed upon Ireland's history and literature.

An Aran Reader encompasses folklore, fiction, botany, ethnography and autobiography from a wide variety of writers - from Giraldus Cambrensis to Tim Robinson, James Joyce to Derek Mahon, Liam O'Flaherty to Mairtin O Direain, Lady Gregory to Seamus Heaney.