Old People Are a Problem

This collection of seven long stories is for and about the elderly. The octogenarian author, Emyr Humphreys, explores change—political, social, and physical—and its effects on the individual and society. The stories also represent an exploration of what the experience of age can offer the 21st century and how that century can accommodate the old and their ideas. They range across such issues as asylum-seeking, cultural nationalism in Wales, and political nationalism in Europe. The characters are lively, motivated, and all too believable. The narrative is accessible but has challenging and thought-provoking undercurrents that give the stories the gravitas expected from Humphreys, one of Wales' leading fiction writers in English.