Forbidden Ireland: Church and State 1951 to present day
A timely first draft of history for future scholars examining Catholic Ireland’s eclipse
Book Reviews
Killing Maradona: The one book you need on football’s greatest No 10
This clever, nonlinear, deeply sad cradle-to-grave account is a standout in the Maradona literature
Trouble Was by Charlotte Edwardes: Toughness of toxic families told with great tenderness
A powerful evocation of childhood and the treachery of the adults who are meant to protect then
New music books: From redreaming My Bloody Valentine to throwing shade on Taylor Swift
Latest releases include Sylvia Patterson’s I’m Not With the Man: A Writer’s Life, which has immensely rewarding interviews with Lady Gaga, Sinéad O’Connor, Liam Gallagher and more
Regime Change: The chaos of Donald Trump exposed in blow-by-blow accounts of highly sensitive meetings
How the second coming of the most mercurial US leader in history ushered in a presidency driven by ‘pure gut instinct’
Crime fiction: Hitchcockian flair in modern Ireland, and a note-perfect Mexican noir
Mingyoung Kang’s Plant Lady is a terrifically satisfying read unlike anything else published this year
Slightly Magical Irish Poetry and the Long 1990s: Thorn trees, wells and ‘railroad revelries’
Lucy McDiarmid discusses the work of 64 poets with a focus on mythology, folk Catholicism and the supernatural
ETA and the ‘Basque Problem’: A British perspective
Separatist group’s relationship with the IRA increasingly became an ongoing concern for London
How France’s far right went from the political fringes to the cusp of power
Next year’s presidential election could put Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National into government, which could affect France and the EU as deeply as Donald Trump has influenced the US
Soul Magic, A Century of Psychotherapy: Humanity’s continuing search for meaning
Engrossing, humane and intellectually ambitious exploration of how we try to understand ourselves
The Response: Former BBC editor brings home reality of climate change
Polemic shows UK is unprepared for environmental emergencies. Irish readers should feel nervous, too
Seamus Heaney’s translations: An exploration of a gifted work
Like Joyce, Heaney was keen to ‘dislodge’ his work from the single-perspective canon of English literature
The Cornucopia Story: Dublin’s wholefood institution is about much more than legumes
In Deirdre O’Mara McCafferty’s deeply moving memoir, food is indistinguishable from community, radical ideas and love
Country People: Small-town caper with larks aplenty
Daniel Mason’s latest novel is set New England with its hero a likable everyman struggling to finish his Phd
Reviews in brief: A very funny memoir and vital, ghastly testimonies from Gaza
New books by Keith Waldrop, Samar Yazbek and Jules Boykoff
The Red Mouth by Sheila Armstrong: A dazzling second novel as layered as the bog itself
This tremendous book is concerned with the impact of the past upon the present
Queenie is Working On It: A confident comeback that delivers on the promise
Candice Carty-Williams offers the reader an abundance of humour and heart
Page turners: 10 books to help you fall back in love with reading
From space stations to 1960s LA, these stories will transport and delight any reader
The Celtic World: A History – Were they superstitious, warlike hotheads as often depicted?
John Waddell takes the reader on a deeply personal tour and makes for the perfect guide
Opening Night by Sara Baume: Deep insights into her own psyche, with respect for the creative process
Writer crafts a book from a friendship she builds with American painter Mollie Douthit, and interrogates herself as to her motivations
Drunken Driving by Martina Evans: Sonnets from a prison
Evans’s latest work can be read as part of her ongoing inquiry into the ways we survive in a world of vampiric thirst and intoxicated protocol
Summer YA reads: from a Snow White who’d prefer not to to same-sex love-love on the tennis court
Books by Cindy Pham, Wren James, Edward Schmidt, Tom Ramsay and Kai Spellmeier
Nuala O’Faolain: Are You Somebody? Honesty that’s compelling and at times unsettling
Late writer’s memoir is equally striking in its treatment of female desire and the need to be seen
A Sudden Flicker of Light: A Revisionist History of the Movies – big screen questions
David Thompson, having devoted his life to writing about film, suggests the medium has begun to diminish our very nature
The German-Russian Century by Stefan Creuzberger: Impressive account of an age-old enmity
A deeply researched yet readable survey of Slav-Teuton antagonisms from the late 1800s to the present
The Beautiful Death of Ozzy Osbourne: Sympathy for the metal
Keith Kahn-Harris does his subject matter a great service in a book that is not just about the Black Sabbath frontman, but about legacy and mortality too
The 21st-Century Brain by Hannah Critchlow: How to maintain mental acuity in this digital era
While the technical reasons are convincingly explained, they feel like basic common sense
A Better Locksmith by Jane Coyle: Chronicle of an astonishingly fecund time in the theatre of Northern Ireland
The critic’s love and care shine through in this compendium of her theatre writing from 1984 to the present
Books in brief: Catholicism: End or Beginning?, The Lobster Pot, and Family Friends
Works by Mary Daly, Bernie McQuillan and Chloë Ashby
Natural Disaster by Lisa Owens: Shockingly retrograde
This is a portrait of a mother with a stunningly unfeminist approach to mothering and all of her personal relationships
Château Rouge by Amit Chaudhuri: a different take on Paris
Ninth novel from Indian author questions expectations and notions of ‘classic’ French ideal
The Devoted by Catherine Cho: A ravishing debut novel about sorrows of the heart
As in The Godfather, the characters are bound not just by crime and family, but because they are immigrants
The Blind Spot by Jeffrey Winters: Big ideas to combat oligarchy and tax dodging
The author argues that democracy is built to facilitate abject inequality, not to combat it
Flick by Kate Lister: Lively and funny deep-dive into the history of female pleasure
Lister argues that women have never been less sexual than men, but the narrative has been controlled with a firm male grip
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