Irish Times writers review the latest paperbacks
Arthur & George by Julian Barnes Vintage, £7.99
In this 2005 Booker runner-up, Barnes has crafted a beautifully engaging, atmospheric, quasi-fictional period narrative based on an episode in the life of the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Arthur Conan Doyle, doctor, writer and sportsman, emerges as a person of intelligence, energy, humanity and genuine flair for life. Drawing on history and biographical fact, Barnes evokes not only Conan Doyle's life, but also his Edwardian world by means of astute characterisation and dialogue. At its unsentimental heart is Conan Doyle's interest in a miscarriage of justice concerning a young Birmingham solicitor, George Edalji, the son of a vicar of Indian origins. The Edalji family was subjected to a series of vicious, racially based attacks that culminated in criminal accusations. Justice and identity are the themes of this richly moving book which is Barnes's finest hour. Eileen Battersby
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt Harper Perennial, £7.99
Anyone who has faced the remorseless challenge of a room full of energy-charged juveniles will be familiar with some of the dramas encountered by Frank McCourt during his 30 years as a teacher in New York. They may also be familiar with the unorthodox strategic thinking required to impart information to a difficult audience of various ethnic flavours. But what manual can prepare a shy male teacher for escorting 20 little black coquettes to a cinema on 42nd Street? In this raw, hilarious, loving account, McCourt reveals his struggles to get it right and how he sometimes failed. But in the process most students did learn - and the Teacher Man from Ireland also learned, not least emotional literacy. This memoir offers a textbook to his old profession - and a joy to his new one. Top of the class, young McCourt. John Moran
The Secret River by Kate Grenville Canongate Books, £7.99
Kate Grenville's brilliant and poignant novel is written with a keen sense of the period and a clear-eyed view of the tough colonisation process, including domination over the native population. Under a hard blue Australian sky and a violent, alien sun, William Thornhill and his fellow emancipists struggle to establish their place in a country that has only recently come to know boundaries. Having arrived from a harsh life in 1800s Dickensian London via convict transport, Will and his wife, Sal, settle along the fertile banks of the Hawkesbury river just beyond Sydney and undertake back-breaking work to make the land their own. As Thornhill's grip on the land tightens so also does his ruthlessness and he becomes a shadow of the man whose regard for his fellow man was notable among his characteristics. Grenville weaves penance with the instinct for survival in a compelling exposition of man's potential for greatness and horror within a captivating landscape. Claire Looby
Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England by Alison Weir Pimlico, £8.99
Isabella pierces the veil of history with scholarly precision. A wealth of careful and astute research reveals a formidable, yet tragic, figure: the sidelined but endlessly resourceful wife of Edward II. At a time when the Queen's role was one of absolute loyalty and submission, this redoubtable woman was thwarted by a husband who was both humiliatingly unfaithful, and a weak, inept ruler. Undaunted, Isabella was to garner a following of her own and overthrow her husband, although it seems the litany of sins traditionally levelled at her, including Edward II's murder, are largely unfounded. Like the King and others in this era of lust and blood-lust, Isabella was doomed to ride a fluctuating tide of public opinion, and, ultimately, fall, submerged by it. A serious rendering of a sensational life. Claire Anderson Wheeler
The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen Penguin, £9.99
This collection of essays takes a fascinating look at how the tradition of sceptical argument plays a crucial role in India's diverse identity. Tracing the tolerance of dissent back to the Moghal emperors, who encouraged inter-faith debates, and the ancient Sanskrit poetry and drama which ridiculed the narrow-minded, Amartya Sen considers the place of argumentative tradition in India today. By acknowledging the historical roots of democracy and secularism, India can more effectively tackle issues such as caste, gender imbalance and religious tensions, Sen believes. A Nobel prize-winning economist, Sen destroys stereotypes about India, instead offering up a feast of information on everything from Ghandi and independence, to film, globalisation and "India and the Bomb", to create colourful and accessible critiques of India today. Sorcha Hamilton
The Secret Life of Trees: How They Live and How They Matter by Colin Tudge Penguin, £8.99
This is a remarkable book, an eye-opener on every aspect of trees: trees with trunks as big as a lighthouse, trees as tall as skyscrapers, trees that would cover a football field. How trees live directly at the expense of others, yet are the world's most exemplary co-operators. We learn of taxonomy (the craft and science of classification), how different trees may finish up with the same name, or (just to confuse) the same trees having different names. Or, astonishingly, how there are 450 species of different oak. Trees, we know, do not have brains and yet they conduct their affairs as adroitly as any military strategist. Tudge's enthusiasm is infectious, and he writes in an informative and entertaining, but no-nonsense, style, explaining complex scientific mechanisms in engaging language. This, ultimately, is a love-letter to trees. Owen Dawson