Article Category: Books

THE GOOD PEOPLE – HANNAH KENT (PICADOR)

March 9, 2017

HANNAH KENT’S second novel follows her internationally successful debut, Burial Rites, the disquieting account of a young wife executed for her role in... Read more »

ROCKADOON SHORE – RORY GLEESON (JOHN MURRAY)

February 23, 2017

AS A new wave of writers continues to energise Irish fiction, Rory Gleeson (son of Brendan) makes his literary debut with a novel... Read more »

HOSTAGES – OISÍN FAGAN (NEW ISLAND BOOKS)

February 9, 2017

MIXING MAGIC realism with sci-fi dystopian horror and elements of pulp fiction, this series of standalone parables consists of five (longish) short stories,... Read more »

LYREBIRD – CECELIA AHERN (HARPERCOLLINS)

January 25, 2017

SINCE WRITING PS I Love You in 2004, Cecelia Ahern has had extraordinary success and there is no doubt that her 14th novel... Read more »

CRIME OF PASSION – JOHN BOORMAN (LIBERTIES PRESS)

December 14, 2016

JOHN BOORMAN’S debut novel at the age of 83 is (unsurprisingly) set in the world of movie-making. The Irish-based director of Deliverance and... Read more »

HELL AT THE GATES – JOHN LEE AND DANIEL MCDONNELL (MERCIER)

December 1, 2016

THIS BOOK is yet another addition to the painfully long list of inside stories on the financial crisis and the near collapse of... Read more »

THE WONDER – EMMA DONOGHUE (PICADOR)

December 1, 2016

ALTHOUGH she has mainly written historical fiction, Emma Donoghue is best known for her 2010 novel Room, which sold over a million copies.... Read more »

ALL WE SHALL KNOW – DONAL RYAN

November 3, 2016

THE TIPPERARY author’s two previous novels (The Spinning Heart and The Thing About December) successfully explored the dark brutal side of Irish rural... Read more »

THE STAR MAN – CONOR O’CLERY

October 5, 2016

  PERHAPS because of the overdose this year on anything and everything related to 1916, earlier Irish historical material, fictional or otherwise, seems... Read more »

THE LESSER BOHEMIANS – EIMEAR McBRIDE

October 5, 2016

IN THIS follow-up to her highly acclaimed (and much hyped) 2013 debut, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, Eimear McBride retains the familiar... Read more »

MINDS OF WINTER – ED O’LOUGHLIN

September 21, 2016

BORN IN Toronto, Ed O’Loughlin grew up in Ireland and worked as a journalist before publishing his debut novel, Not Untrue and Not... Read more »

THE LONELY SEA AND SKY – DERMOT BOLGER

August 10, 2016

NEW ISLAND In December 1943, one of the most extraordinary events in Irish naval history occurred when a small ship en route from... Read more »

A TIME OF TORMENT

July 2, 2016

JOHN CONNOLLY  – (HODDER & STOUGHTON) THE DUBLIN author (and former Irish Times journalist) John Connolly is best known in the US, where... Read more »

THE PONZI MAN – DECLAN LYNCH (HACHETTE)

June 17, 2016

SINDO columnist Declan Lynch has written several books exploring addiction and his weekly column regularly focuses on the subject. This latest novel is... Read more »

SPILL SIMMER FALTER WITHER

June 1, 2016

SARA BAUME (WINDMILL) THIS UNLIKELY story traces an eventful year in the life of a 57-year-old recluse who adopts an abandoned one-eyed dog.... Read more »

QUINNT-ESSENTIAL FEARGAL

June 1, 2016

FEARGAL QUINN – (O’BRIEN) PERHAPS the biggest revelation in Superquinn tycoon Feargal Quinn’s memoir, Quintessential Feargal, is that he once lost his temper. He... Read more »

FLAWED – CECILIA AHERN (HARPER COLLINS)

April 21, 2016

GRIM ALLEGORICAL tales about dysfunctional futuristic societies have become staples in youth fiction over the past decade. ‘Young Adult’ novels – predominantly written... Read more »

BISHOP’S DELIGHT – PATRICK McGINLEY (NEW ISLAND)

April 7, 2016

PATRICK MCGINLEY was born in Co. Donegal in 1937 and moved to England during the 1960s. His earlier novels – particularly Bogmail, Foggage... Read more »

THE DROWNED DETECTIVE – NEIL JORDAN (BLOOMSBURY)

March 24, 2016

  THE OPENING chapter of Neil Jordan’s first novel since 2011 appears to be in keeping with the conventional fast-paced crime thriller. Jonathan,... Read more »

RECAP: Inside Ireland’s Financial Crisis

March 9, 2016

Kevin Cardiff  (The Liffey Press) KEVIN CARDIFF was a senior mandarin at the Department of Finance from 2006 to 2010 and secretary general... Read more »

THIS LIVING AND IMMORTAL THING

March 9, 2016

AUSTIN DUFFY (GRANTA) THE TITLE of this debut novel refers to the remarkable effort cancer cells give to growing and multiplying. Duffy’s story... Read more »