In a scene with two ex-lovers meeting after many years:

They fumble behind two menus and she orders green tea and he another americano. They look out the window and watch as a woman turns to her little boy and wags her index finger in his face. The boy doesn’t react but looks past his mother at Elizabeth until his mother tugs him by the arm to walk on with her. His eyes are locked on Elizabeth to the last. Rain streams down the window.

This child appears momentarily like a portent, an oracle who neither reveals nor conceals his meaning, but indicates it with a glance.

Dara O Foghlu’s A Monkey Is For Life is a story of a man called Coley who gets thousands in compensation for an industrial accident. Enough for him to retire wealthy. So what does he do?

The smartest thing to do with the money, he decided, would be to buy two new cars – neither of which he put tax or insurance on – and a monkey called Panther.

Coley had the local tailor fashion a tweed jacket and matching paddy-cap for Panther to keep out the cold. When they tugged the monkey into his outfit, the tailor remarked how much like Coley’s late father he looked.

“He’s certainly hairy enough,” the tailor said. “All he’s missing is the cigarette hanging from his lip.”

And on it goes, an unpredictable shaggy-monkey tale with a tragic ending.