  A celebrated theorem of Kirby identifies the set of closed oriented connected
3-manifolds with the set of framed links in $S^3$ modulo two moves. We give a
similar description for the set of knots (and more generally, boundary links)
in homology 3-spheres. As an application, we define a noncommutative version of
the Alexander polynomial of a boundary link. Our surgery view of boundary links
is a key ingredient in a construction of a rational version of the Kontsevich
integral, which is described in subsequent work. The current version fixes
minor typographical errors.

Geometric Topology;Quantum Algebra