Seamus Heaney's death in August 2013 brought to completion his body of work, and scholars are only now coming to understand the full scale and importance of his career. Much of the scholarship to date on Heaney has focused on his poetry. O'Brien's new work, however, focuses on Heaney's essays, book chapters, and lectures as it seeks to understand how Heaney explored the poet's role in the world.