You’ve Changed: The Promise and Price of Self-Transformation by Benoit Denizet-Lewis
Author exposes a self-improvement industry that is alive and well, its current manifestation being the pursuit of ‘wellness’
Book Reviews
Books in brief: The Python’s Kiss; Runaway Joe; and Yesteryear
New works by Louise Erdrich, Pavel Barter and Caro Claire Burke
Whidbey by T Kira Madden: Unexpected compassion for child-rapist’s mother impresses in this debut
Strangers on a Train haunts the opening pages of Whidbey, when a young woman encounters a man on a ferry
Ambivalence by Brian Dillon: Slanted memoir told from a distance
Tracing the trajectory of a boy who ‘never stopped reading’ despite considerable early loss
Wild Iris by Ruth McKee: A shocking and surprising debut novel
This book set along the east coast of Ireland explores the psychic dimensions of shame, inconfidence and a lack of self-affection
Europe - A New History by Roderick Beaton: Skilful charting of political upheaval and issues of division and unity
In a vitally timely book, author asks whether citizens can come together in a ‘collective identity for Europe’
No Ghosts by Max Lury: a rigorous new exploration of the creepypasta aesthetic
Ambitious debut novel successfully describes the warped state of human-computer interactions, but its protagonists lack substance and emotional depth
The Powerful Primate by Roland Ennos: A startling conclusion about pre-Famine Ireland
Channelling the 1970s BBC sitcom The Good Life, Ennos advocates self-sufficient gardening as a way back to happiness
CS Lewis’s rich Irishness gives the lie to the ‘buttoned-up Englishman’ stereotype
As an ‘alternative’ Ulster Protestant with parents from Cork, his Irishness has been marginalised and reduced
Auden by Peter Ackroyd: The poet emerges as a profoundly repellent personality
Ackroyd’s biography is a definitive achievement written with verve
Light and Thread by Han Kang: An intriguing collection that does justice to its author’s singular voice
However, the South Korean author’s English nonfiction debut lacks standalone appeal
The Things We Never Say: Elizabeth Strout taps into something very alive in the human psyche
Set just before the 2024 US presidential election, this work is Strout’s most political so far
Frida Slattery as Herself, by Ana Kinsella: It’s easy to see why this debut excited editors
This is an effortless, elegant and impressive debut from a promising young writer
RTÉ: Saints, Scholars and Scandals by Shane Ross - bringing a sharp eye to barter accounts and clandestine payments
There is an extended profile of Ryan Tubridy - 'RTÉ’s fallen hero' - but Ross reserves most criticism for Moya Doherty and Dee Forbes
The Nuremberg Women by Natalie Livingstone: Memory always a question of where we choose to look
Work builds an archive against absence, showing how the story of Nuremberg has been shaped by the forgetting of women
Prestige Drama by Séamas O’Reilly: Warm satire on TV melodrama about the Troubles
Author’s debut novel navigates sombre and emotionally complex terrain with impressively light touch
Digital grieving and dysfunctional justice systems: some tough and thought-provoking May YA reads
Five funny, challenging and poignant reads for teen and adult readers
Reviews in brief: ‘Hypocrisy and self-interest’ – a critique of European complacency
Blind-Spot Politics; None of Us Will Be Okay; Something Might Fall
Upward Bound by Woody Brown: A non-verbal autistic man’s valuable appreciation of humanity
An exceptional book that’s not only a great read but an enriching experience
The Left and the Lucky by Willy Vlautin: Portrait of an unusual friendship and the acts that carry them
The novel relates how acts of compassion and kindness – great and small – are windbreaks we build against adversity
When The World Sleeps by Francesca Albanese: Effortless schooling on intricacies behind Gaza headlines
UN Rapporteur on Human Rights weaves together legal work she undertakes to achieve justice for Palestinians, with personal story
Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe by Katja Hoyer serves up history with a human heart
Hoyer explains how Germany lurched ‘from one of the most liberal democracies to genocidal dictatorship’
Gordon Brown: Power with Purpose – what has happened to leadership motivated by seriousness?
James McIntyre’s biography tends heavily to a depiction of Brown as having a sense of moral duty to lead, rather than to any ruthless ambition
The Fallen - The Magdalene Laundries and Ireland’s Legacy of Silence: A perversion of any basic humanity
Louise Brangan’s fluent and deeply compassionate account makes a serious contribution to a subject that has still not been laid to rest
From 1916 to the bailout – Colin Murphy’s Political Plays: 100 Years of Irish History
The author has an acute realisation that the arc of history bends not just to tragedy but to farce
Best new children’s books: Making history fun
It’s amazing how much you can learn while looking for a doll in an Omani souk
Talking Classics by Mary Beard: sounds like eavesdropping on a good Saturday night in Pompeii
Now that our politicians are quoting Thucydides again, the book emits a sparky timelessness
Murder in Paris ’68: Enthralling account of a scandal that even now seems hard to believe
Sensational case - in which movie star Alain Delon was a suspect - exploded further when former prime minister and wife were accused of orgy involvement
Transcription by Ben Lerner: Poignant exploration of midlife anxieties
A story of crossed wires, disconnection and anxious attachments – to fathers, father figures and digital comfort blankets
Children’s books: from an innovative warts’n’all American history to art without men
Reviews: America as it Happened; Pets Tell Tales of Ancient Rome; A History of Art without Men; Ireland; and Home Away from Home
New poetry: Leontia Flynn; Martina Dalton; Blake Morrison; and Joe Carrick-Varty
Declan Ryan reviews Selected Poems; Midnight at the Saltmarsh; Afterburn; and Before Violence
Decoding a genius – Kafkaesque: Ten Great Writers Translate the Twentieth Century
Adopting an accessible, conversational style, Maïa Hruska examines Franz Kafka’s earliest champions
Jokes, but no jokey cover for reissue of Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
Plus reviews of These Isles by Brian Groom; and The Doom Loop by Eswar S Prasad
The Book That Taught the World to Orgasm and then Disappeared: Shere Hite and the Hite Report
Rosa Campbell’s compelling work does justice to a feminist warrior
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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Weddings, Births, Deaths and other family notices