In and Out of the Shadow, by Liam Nolan (Mount Eagel, £7.99)

Readers wishing to be reminded, or to learn, what it was like to be brought up in Cobh during the Emergency will appreciate this…

Readers wishing to be reminded, or to learn, what it was like to be brought up in Cobh during the Emergency will appreciate this autobiographical novel. The lively dialogue presumably is a fictional approximation of the way maritime families spoke of that ambivalently neutral port at that time. The rest of the narrative gives the impression of being based on authentic recollections of a young boy's sympathetic distress on hearing of wartime disasters at sea.

International political considerations apparently did not colour contemporary accounts of the rival belligerents' operations. He felt anguish whether the casualties were British, German or (by mistake) Irish. When German survivors were brought ashore to Cobh, "He didn't see enemies - all he saw were boys like himself, just a little older. But just as confused." The book may be read as a pacifist plea of persuasive earnestness.