Culture  
/
 
Books  
 
‘Raymond Carver’s poems’ popularity must be in part due to their unrelenting cheerfulness – a contrast with many of his stories.’ A Carver carved Frank McNally - Frank McNally

An Irishman’s Diary: Remembering a writer who (more than once, perhaps) was cut off in his prime

Reviews

TransAtlantic, by Colum McCann

Inspired in part by Alcock and Brown’s pioneering transatlantic flight, the Irish author’s new novel is his finest since ‘This Side of Brightness’

The Beautiful Truth, by Belinda Seaward

Paperback review

Towards Commemoration: Ireland in War and Revolution 1912-1923, edited by John Horne and Edward Madigan

Paperback review

The Ikon Maker, by Desmond Hogan

Paperback review

Trespassers: A Memoir, by Julia O’Faolain

An insightful chronicle describes a daughter’s struggle to emerge from the shadow of her famous father, the writer Séan O’Faolain

Inferno, by Dan Brown

Armed with nothing but tweed and factoids, can art historian Robert Langdon solve yet another supercrime?

Evil Men, by James Dawes

A study based on interviews with Japanese war criminals is also a larger meditation on the nature of atrocities

This House Is Haunted, by John Boyne

The Irish author’s highly entertaining ghost story tips its hat to Dickens

Confronting the Classics, by Mary Beard

Her enthusiasm – and a contrarian streak – make Britain’s most visible classicist an ideal advocate for her subject

All That Is, by James Salter

Sex is a battlefield in the octogenarian American writer’s new novel

‘Raymond Carver’s poems’ popularity must be in part due to their unrelenting cheerfulness – a contrast with many of his stories.’ A Carver carved

An Irishman’s Diary: Remembering a writer who (more than once, perhaps) was cut off in his prime

Leanne O’Sullivan: her “strong and varied collection” has its lighter moments. Photograph: Donal O’Sullivan Hankering after something vanished
  • Books
  • John McAuliffe
  • May 25, 2013, 02:00

The thoughtful, ambitious poems in Leanne O’Sullivan’s new collection bring the past to life

Nadeem Aslam: reading and interview in Listowel. Photograph: Jerry Bauer Word for Word: the literary month ahead

Photograph: Doubleday Code read: when Dan met Dante

Dan Brown’s new novel sets his indestructible hero against the problem of overpopulation – which is funny, given that most of the world seems to have read his books

Photograph: Julien Chatelin/Rex Features James Salter: a long career, a late flourishing
  • Books
  • Belinda McKeon
  • May 18, 2013, 01:00

For too long, perhaps, he was a writer’s writer – but James Salter’s reputation has matured with age

Colum McCann at Sandymount, Dublin in 2011. New York, however, is where he wants to live now. Photograph: Alan Betson Colum McCann’s latest high-wire act links home and America

Colum McCann’s ‘Irish book’ is an emigrant’s take on Frederick Douglass and George Mitchell in Ireland

Past master: Eoin Colfer. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons Variations on a theme that stand the test of time
  • Books
  • Robert Dunbar
  • May 18, 2013, 01:00

The latest children’s books

‘Storytelling done better’?: the icon for Faber’s app of John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps Word for Word: telling stories beyond the printed page
  • Books
  • Eoin Purcell
  • May 18, 2013, 01:00

Mary Lavin’s daughters (from left) Valdi MacMahon, Liz Peavoy and Caroline Walsh at a mews in Lad Lane that was once their home. Photograph: David Sleator From the bohemia of Baggot Street, to a New York point of view
  • Culture
  • Belina McKeon
  • May 16, 2013, 02:00

Mary Lavin had a curiosity, wit and wisdom that made her essential reading , whether on the pages of the ‘New Yorker’ or in her many collections and novels

Inferno by author Dan Brown went on sale yesterday. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Run, Robert, run: Dan Brown’s ‘Inferno’

‘The Da Vinci Code’ author’s breathless new book is out now. But is it any good?

‘It was the great Count John McCormack who encouraged Joyce to enter the competition (McCormack himself had won the gold medal in 1903) and Joyce, who had yet to publish anything, perhaps saw in this event an opportunity for fame – and monetary advantage.’ Above, bust of James Joyce in St Stephen’s Green, Dublin. Photograph: Frank Miller Joyce’s winning ‘Farewell’
  • Books
  • Mark Lawler
  • May 15, 2013, 01:01

An Irishman’s Diary: A medal for the music

Night and life: New York through the lens of Baz Luhrmann in the director’s new version of ‘The Great Gatsby’ Gatsby’s city still lives

Since F Scott FitzGerald immortalised Roaring Twenties New York in ‘The Great Gatsby’, the city has changed many times without losing the atmosphere that captivates millions

Tributes and tributaries

An Irishman’s Diary: Remembering Con Houlihan in his home town

Photograph: Nancy Crampton ‘The images that I see – that all of us see – don’t represent the Africa that I know’

Her strong sense of identity reaches deep into the fiction of Taiye Selasi, one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists

Time for the reader: Maeve Binchy signs books in 1991. Photograph: Frank Miller Word for Word: when writers meet readers
  • Books
  • Doireann Ní Bhriain
  • May 11, 2013, 06:00

Putting Masters of the Universe under pressure: Alan Glynn. Photograph: Frank Miller Vigilante vengeance on the great, the good and the grotesque
  • Books
  • Declan Burke
  • May 11, 2013, 06:00

The latest crime fiction

Paul Lynch whose new book Red Sky in Morning has just been published. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien ‘I have to keep pushing at the edges of what I can do’

Debut novelist Paul Lynch is frank about his influences, admits he’s ‘not good’ at research, and writes in ‘a bit of a trance’ – but there’s no doubting his intent

Life stories: ‘I want to be a popular novelist who’s also serious, or a serious novelist who’s also very accessible,’ says Douglas Kennedy. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien Douglas Kennedy: a storyteller grappling with the larger things in life

Six million books sold – and still the author of ‘The Big Picture’ is always fretting about the next one

Irish Times Culture


Latest Books

Blasket Island native Tomás O’Crohan A Blasket bore
Sarah Merriman A Long Time Coming
Kindle users receive their pre-ordered copy of the new Dan Brown novel Inferno on their Kindle devices as the clock on Big Ben in London’s Westminster strikes midnight, ahead of the book’s release in shops today. Photograph: Geoff Caddick/PA Robert Langdon is back in Dan Brown’s latest thriller Inferno
The Linenhall Library in Belfast celebrated its 225th birthday on Monday. Pictured are Julie Andrews, Linen Hall Library Director, and Deputy Director Patricia Saunders. Photograph: Arthur Allison Linen Hall Library celebrates its 225th anniversary
Book Club The Irish Times & Eason Book Club The Irish Times & Eason

This week's book: Astray by Emma Donoghue - Available from Saturday 25th May - Friday 31st May

Book Offers Book Offers

From The Irish Times Book of the Year to Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, you'll find books for all tastes and ages.