Article Category: Reviews

HOLD ME NOW – JOHN MACKENNA

May 21, 2020
THIS NOSTALGIC love story, spanning several decades from the late 1980s onwards, is loosely framed against the backdrop of the Eurovision song contest and... Read more »

A THOUSAND MOONS – SEBASTIAN BARRY (FABER & FABER)

April 23, 2020
SEBASTIAN BARRY’S Costa-winning Days Without End told the story of two young soldiers in the American Civil War. In this sequel, set during the... Read more »

THE ARMS CRISIS OF 1970 – MICHAEL HENEY (APOLLO LONDON)

April 9, 2020
IRISH POLITICS experienced a seminal moment in 1970, with two dismissed former ministers, Charlie Haughey and Neil Blaney, facing trial. The charges related to... Read more »

APEIROGON – COLUM McCANN (BLOOMSBURY)

March 12, 2020
BEST KNOWN for his hugely successful Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann’s inventive fiction ranges widely and is generally international in scope. His... Read more »

ACTRESS – ANNE ENRIGHT (JONATHAN CAPE)

February 27, 2020
ANNE ENRIGHT’S surprisingly laboured seventh novel tells the story of Norah FitzMaurice, a middle-aged novelist trying to make sense of her famous mother’s life.... Read more »

BLINDBOY BOATCLUB – BOULEVARD WREN AND OTHER STORIES (GILL BOOKS)

January 30, 2020
THE FIRST laugh generated by Boulevard Wren unintentionally arrives courtesy of the publishers, Gill Books, which assert that Blindboy Boatclub is “one of Ireland’s... Read more »

CHAOS IS A FRIEND OF MINE – EWAN MACKENNA

December 12, 2019
THERE IS no question that the Conor McGregor story is a classic of the sports genre: a man who once looked like he was... Read more »

ALL IN – JAMIE HEASLIP (GILL AND MACMILLAN)

October 31, 2019
“I REALISED I had a problem in my relationship with the media and that I contributed to that, and I couldn’t just blame individual... Read more »

RECOVERING – RICHARD SADLIER  (GILL BOOKS)

October 16, 2019
ELEVEN YEARS ago, The Phoenix published a ‘Young Blood’ profile of former footballer Richie Sadlier, who impressed with his ambition, confidence and ability to... Read more »

ONCE, TWICE, THREE TIMES AN AISLING

October 3, 2019
When the publishing phenomenon that is Aisling landed with the first Oh My God, What A Complete Aisling novel in 2017, it followed a... Read more »

THE GHOST FACTORY – JENNY McCARTNEY (4th ESTATE)

April 18, 2019
WITH NO apparent end in sight to fictional accounts of the Troubles, it’s not surprising that this debut novel revisits familiar ground. The author... Read more »

WHEN ALL IS SAID – ANNE GRIFFIN (SCEPTRE)

March 21, 2019
THIS DEBUT novel from the prize-winning short-story writer takes the form of a series of expansive inner monologues by a recently widowed 84-year-old farmer,... Read more »

GAME CHANGER – CORA STAUNTON/MARY WHITE

December 13, 2018
IT HAS been a bumper year for sports autobiographies, with Andy Lee’s Fighter and Tony 10 by Declan Lynch and Tony O’Reilly leading the... Read more »

MILKMAN – ANNA BURNS (FABER & FABER)

November 1, 2018
THIS YEAR’S Man Booker winner (the first from Northern Ireland), Anna Burns, has published two previous novels and is well regarded in literary circles... Read more »

THE TRICK TO TIME – KIT DE WAAL (VIKING)

August 23, 2018
THIS SECOND novel by Kit de Waal follows her bestselling 2016 debut, My Name is Leon, the story of a vulnerable young boy in... Read more »

SKIN DEEP – LIZ NUGENT (PENGUIN IRELAND)

June 13, 2018
“I WONDERED when rigor mortis would set in, or if it already had.” So begins Liz Nugent’s new novel – which focuses on the... Read more »

CONNECT – JULIAN GOUGH (PICADOR)

May 31, 2018
TIPPERARY AUTHOR Julian Gough (now Berlin-based) has already produced three comic novels and a series of children’s stories. He also wrote the ‘ending’ to... Read more »