This book is the outcome of the 1996 Warwick Algebraic Geometry EuroConference, containing 17 survey and research articles selected from the most outstanding contemporary research topics in algebraic geometry. Several of the articles are expository: among these a beautiful short exposition by Paranjape of the new and very simple approach to the resolution of singularities; a detailed essay by Ito and Nakamura on the ubiquitous A,D,E classification, centred around simple surface singularities; a discussion by Morrison of the new special Lagrangian approach to giving geometric foundations to mirror symmetry; and two deep, informative surveys by Siebert and Behrend on Gromow-Witten invariants treating them from the point of view of algebraic and symplectic geometry. The remaining articles cover a wide cross-section of the most significant research topics in algebraic geometry. This includes Gromow-Witten invariants, Hodge theory, Calabi-Yau 3-folds, mirror symmetry and classification of varieties.