Homework by Geoff Dyer: Airfix models and Action Man dolls
Author’s 19th book features many childhood and adolescent preoccupations
The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine: A sparklingly polyphonic debut novel set in modern Belfast
In part, this novel is about how rich people mobilise to protect their class interests
Thirst Trap by Gráinne O’Hare: For fans of well-written absolute riots
It’s funny, compassionate, observant and wise
Did nobody actually read this book before it went to print?: The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
The publisher’s blurb praises Vuong’s ‘syntactical dexterity’, which must be an in-house joke
Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever by Lamorna Ash: a literary feat and deeply humane book about faith
Ash’s book, recounting her own inner change, is subtle, self-conscious and beautifully wrought
Inside judging one of the big literary prizes: searching for sinister outside forces, table banging and some gems of books
Writers love to complain that literary awards committees are black boxes of partisan conspiracy. I am, in a way, sorry to disappoint
Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh: highly promising debut by a big talent
Although this unapologetic portrait of a heterosexual teenage boy isn’t perfect, there is much to savour
Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett: Into the abyss, again
Faber’s new editions come with excellent introductions by Colm Tóibín, Claire-Louise Bennett and Eimear McBride
The Routledge Companion to 21st-century Irish Writing: academics deliver hefty report from the coalface on the state of our culture
A mixed-bag on purpose, the volume spans prose, poetry and drama then looks at the new in an uncertain era of change
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Entertaining and compassionate, with gorgeous touches of life
The author’s first book in more than a decade engagingly explores the conflict between liberal individualism and the real demands of a community in which our individualities might flourish
Minority Rule by Ash Sarkar: Pick up this book and see the world clearly
With her first book, Sarkar aims to bury the the culture wars and advance a critique that everyone urgently needs to hear
Confessions by Catherine Airey: A remarkably confident, complex and nuanced debut novel
This multigenerational, transatlantic family saga starts with 9/11 and swerves back in time to Donegal in the 1970s
Kevin Power: Literary magazines are all the more vital for operating off the commercial grid
This rich universe of words includes The Stinging Fly, Banshee, Ragaire, Splonk, Sonder, The Four-Faced Liar, The Pig’s Back, Profiles and Southword
Kevin Power: I took a deep dive into Irish literary magazines and would do it again without hesitation
Between Holy Show, Dublin Review of Books, Tolka and the Dublin Review, I had a high stack on my desk
ChatGPT on campus: ‘Silicon Valley overlords have unleashed one of their ingenious, idiotic products, dismissing the downsides’
Trinity College Dublin lecturer and author Kevin Power gives his take on students’ use of AI to help them with exam papers