The Irish Timeswriters review the latest paperbacks
Other Colours By Orhan PamukFaber, £9.99
This collection from 2006 Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk presents readers with a wide spectrum of the author's occasional writing - sketches, ruminations, journalism, and political commentary. Pamuk enthusiasts will enjoy the book's intensely personal nature, which delves into the inner workings of a man who has become emblematic of the Eastern/Western divide in his homeland, Turkey.
The quotidian details of his work-habits and family routine, coupled with essays about his trial for violating Article 301, a statute which forbids a Turk from insulting the Republic of Turkey, will entice even those readers simply curious but unfamiliar with Pamuk and his work. Included, too, is To Look Out The Window, a previously unpublished story which Pamuk admits is strongly autobiographical in his introduction.
Throughout the collection, we are presented with an erudite man, passionate about reading and writing. It is a collection that everyone ought to read, and then return to. - Emily Firetog
The Loudest Sound and Nothing By Clare WigfallFaber, £8.99
According to her MySpace profile, Clare Wigfall got her big break in writing when, aged just 21, an editor from Faber invited her to take as long as she liked to write whatever she liked. Ten years on from that auspicious beginning, Wigfall won this year's BBC National Short Story Award for this volume's opening story, The Numbers. Set on a remote Scottish island, it is just one of many diverse and highly original stories in a collection that moves from 1870s Paris to downtown New York to suburban England.
At her best, Wigfall can create haunting and memorable stories - most notably Folks Like Us, a Springsteen-esque tale of an ex-con who falls for a waitress and persuades her to leave town with him. Though at times Wigfall falls short of the ambitious standards she has set - too often her stories end with overly-familiar gestures - she nevertheless displays the beginnings of a powerful and distinctive literary voice. - Freya McClements
Maestros, Masterpieces and Madness: The Secret Life and Shameful Death of the Classical Record Industry By Norman LebrechtPenguin, £8.99
Lebrecht has a wealth of knowledge of his subject and this detailed and rapid account flies through the classical music recording industry's journey from radical experimentation and financial boom to desperate hopes of breaking even selling old products.
The art of classical music was essentially changed by the invention of recording technology as "accuracy and speed transcended inspiration as the object of performance", and supposedly definitive performances of compositions became available to audiences in their homes. Lebrecht introduces a web of musicians, conductors, producers and executives possessed of equal parts passion and eccentricity, and charts the sibling rivalries between the main record companies as they compete, betray, imitate and form alliances. The history of the industry provides the first third of the book, after which the author identifies his choice of 100 milestone recordings (the most interesting part of the book), followed by a similar list of 20 abject records. Lebrecht's expertise is interesting and, despite a terrible addiction to alliteration, the writing is fluent. - Colm Farren
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Lustre By Dana ThomasPenguin, £8.99
Once the credit crunch is over, and you're looking for a funky new designer handbag to splurge €3,000 on, bear in mind that the bag itself probably cost no more than €300 to make. The other €2,700 will go on dreaming up advertising campaigns, maintaining boutiques and fattening the bank balance of the multinational corporation whose portfolio of brands includes the label you're so keen to buy into.
That, at least, is the take of Dana Thomas, an extremely readable Newsweekjournalist who surveys the transformation of the world of luxury goods, from one of small, proud, independent manufacturers driven by quality to one of voracious globetrotting businessmen driven by profit. - Liam Stebbing
Crusaders By Richard T KellyFaber, £8.99
The book's blurb's makes claim to it being "The Greatest Novel of the Decade". This is somewhat off the mark. Its flaws cannot be concealed by either its length or narrative. And the constant flashbacks eventually interfere with the rhythm of the story for they are confusingly of both the recent and distant past. The novel centres on three very diverse characters: an Anglican minister (the principal protagonist), faced with the daunting task of "planting" a new church in a deprived and depraved area of Newcastle; an ambitious Labour MP; and a local thug, who all come together to form an unusual alliance.
As a distraction, the good minister, who is already out of his depth, also becomes involved with a streetwise single mother. On another level, this book can be read as a critique on New Labour's perceived political chicanery and a general state-of-the-nation analysis. Any novel worth its salt should want us to become involved with our hero, even when he's despicable, which this minister certainly is not. Here, we're not really bothered. If one must read it, it will require serious concentration and much patience. - Owen Dawson