From a green shoot to something mighty: the best new children’s fiction
Tree Thing by Piers Torday; That’s It! Said the Dandelion by Nicola Reddy; and more
Book Reviews
Joyce Cary: a writer alert to the twin evils of prejudice and powerlessness
A reissue of a trilogy of books by Derry-born Joyce Cary, who is part of that tradition of Irish writers - Wilde, Shaw, Bowen - who set about explaining the English to the English
The Coming Storm: A world moving for decades in the wrong direction
Development of rising nations has become the cause of Great Power antagonisms
Butter author Asako Yuzuki returns with Hooked: Latest novel resonates beyond Japan
After Butter’s global success, Yuzuki examines female friendship, modern isolation and the pressures of perfection
Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise: A classic gothic romance at heart
A Dublin 4 version of Rebecca’s Manderley that’s delightfully sinister in its well-heeled hypocrisy
New poetry: A lifelong dedication to getting it right
New collections from Gerry Smyth, Cathy Galvin, Catherine Ann Cullen and Matthew Rice
You with the Sad Eyes by Christina Applegate: Raw, fast-paced memoir full of dark humour
The actress writes candidly about her anxiety, disordered eating, perfectionism and the quiet belief that she was somehow undeserving of kindness
‘An exquisitely satirised handsome-bastard boyfriend’: Scottish gothic; New York angst; Gen Z wit
Bluff by Francine Toon; Like Family by Erin White; The Last Witch on the Knock by Aimée MacDonald
Beryl Bainbridge drew on her own life for her funny, dark novels
Two of the British writer’s best works, The Bottle Factory Outing and An Awfully Big Adventure, are republished this month
A Holocaust survivor’s essential book for anyone concerned with law or human rights
Theodor Meron’s A Thousand Miracles: From Surviving the Holocaust to Judging Genocide
The Lock-Keeper’s Wife by John MacKenna: Menopausal protagonist brought low by a lousy husband
A novel that follows Julie MacDermott on her return from ‘The Mental’, to which she was committed by her spouse
Rousseau’s Lost Children by Gavin McCrea: Devastating intimacies exposed
Dublin-born writer returns with a novel pairing philosopher’s teachings with intimate, often devastating, story of a teacher and student
Field Notes from an Extinction by Eoghan Walls: Compelling story of survival and apocalypse
Both humans and birds are the victims of systems and philosophies run amok in this novel about an English scientist studying the last of a dying species
The Race Makers by Andrew Curran: Tackling the Enlightenment’s questionable legacy
Author critiques the Enlightenment’s dark side in this accessible, engaging and illuminating history
A World Appears: Michael Pollan’s quest to understand consciousness and the mind
The bestselling author turns his attention to the mysteries of awareness and perception
Translated fiction: Women in Ukraine; Jewish Guatemalans ready for war; an East German memoir
Works by Yuliia Iliukha, Artem Chapeye, Antoine Volodine, Eduardo Halfon, Julia Franck and Elisa Shua Dusapin
Books in brief: André Aciman a master of emotion dissected by well-dressed, well-read people
Stowaways by André Aciman; The Connemara Sea-Trout Fisheries by Paddy Gargan; Keshed by Stu Hennigan
Fire in Every Direction: Tareq Baconi on identity and generational exile
Through family stories and personal recollections, Baconi explores the complexities of Palestinian identity and belonging in exile
The Disappearing Act by Maria Stepanova and Sasha Dugdale: A slim novella of disconnection
The prevailing dream-like atmosphere of this book is compelling
Here’s why ‘there has never been a better time to be a criminal’
A rigorous, passionate and thoroughly bleak analysis of global finance’s dark underbelly
The Last of Earth: Deepa Anappara’s evocative tale of exploration and empire
A meticulously researched historical novel that captures the beauty, danger, and politics of Tibet in 1869
James Ryan: the most influential minister not to have become taoiseach
Michael Loughman’s James Ryan and the Development of Independent Ireland, 1892-1970 is an eminently readable biography of an unjustly neglected politician
Siege in Ireland, 1641-53: A history even more brutal than we could have imagined
Pádraig Lenihan’s outstanding new book includes events and figures seared into Ireland’s collective historical and cultural memory
Local history: Rockite rebellion of 1820s, a Jekyll-and-Hyde press baron and the ‘gregarious grocer’
Broad scholarship still reflected in stylishly produced journals across the country
Bad Fiction by Rebecca Sarah Ley: well-written, but programmed
This book is, for want of better phrasing, a bit too well-written. There’s virtually nothing to be thought or said about it
The Irish Goodbye by Heather Aimee O’Neill: Secrets and lies on Long Island
An understated story in which the echoes of shared trauma cascade through the years
White River Crossing by Ian McGuire: Another triumph of historical fiction
The author of The North Water returns to the Arctic for this brutal, beautiful, luminously lyrical novel
New Labour, New Britain?: Reconsidering the Blair years
Compelling book argues convincingly that the 1997-2007 government was not a continuation of Thatcherism
Hated by all the Right People by Jason Zengerle: Will Tucker Carlson become next Maga leader?
This biography of the right-wing media celebrity is timely, informative and highly readable
Outsider by Paul Cullen: Moving memoir holds a torch up to cruel attitudes of the past
Cullen’s journey of discovery is the type that can haunt its reader in the middle of the night
In Glass Houses by Edel Coffey: Another pitting of the haves against the have-nots
The New York setting is ideal for exploring the amorality of those corrupted by power, although the distinction between rich and poor is a little too neat
Orange by Curtis Garner: A novel that might have made a good short story
Garner ought to have been held back, edited, forced to rewrite. That’s what agents, publishers, editors are for
Unspeakable by Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne: Human triumph after trauma
If you are therapy-curious, a therapist or simply interested in the tenacity of the human spirit, this is for you
New crime fiction: Gripping new work from Claire McGowan, Patricia Gibney and more
The Other Couple by Claire McGowan; Three Windows by Patricia Gibney; The Final Problem by Arturo Pérez-Reverte; Gone for Good by Sarah Crossan; and True Blue by Joe Thomas
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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Family NoticesOpens in new window
Weddings, Births, Deaths and other family notices