On swanky hotels, Gráinne O’Malley’s tailor-made pirate outfits, and her own unusual hidden talent. ℘℘℘ Mary Beth Keane’s novel, Ask Again, Yes, published in May 2019, is a lyrical, moving tale spanning 40 years, about Irish American cops, family, love, alcoholism and mental illness. Told with tenderness and empathy for the human condition, it isRead more..
1,000 Books to Read Before You Die By James Mustich If you can get past what is clearly one of the more intimidating book titles you will ever come across, this volume is a wonder to dip in and out, in small or large doses. And not surprisingly, it is loaded with Irish titles –Read more..
MILKMAN Anna Burns I didn’t know much about Northern Ireland before I left home in 1972. There was one shopping trip to Belfast on the train. I bought a purple and black maxi coat that looked like a woolen dressing gown. I had it for years and I can’t think why I gave it away.Read more..
Recently published books by Irish and Irish-American authors. ℘℘℘ In the Galway Silence by Ken Bruen The Galway Tourist Office must just brace itself every time there’s a new book out by Ken Bruen. For every delight that Galway is known for, Bruen has the down-at-heel, dark-side alternative version. Quirky shops? Dead swans. Lovely pubs?Read more..
Recently-published books of Irish and Irish-American interest. ℘℘℘ FICTION A Keeper By: Graham Norton As a friend commented recently, is there anything Graham Norton can’t do? He’s already got the perfect chat show, the reasonably decent wine varieties, and even added best-selling novelist to his array of talents two years ago with Holding. And now,Read more..
Recently-published books of Irish and Irish American interest. ℘℘℘ FICTION Normal People By: Sally Rooney There is something quietly knowing in the title of Sally Rooney’s second novel. Perhaps the reader is lulled into a false sense of security by the reassurance that these are characters just like us. And for the most part, theyRead more..
New novels by Irish authors; challenging the legacy of the Rising; and Americans’ role in the rebellion. ℘℘℘ A Line Made By Walking By Sara Baume Tragic figures such as Vincent Van Gogh, Oscar Wilde, and Virginia Woolf feature prominently in history’s narrative of the creatively-inclined and chronically depressed. Implied in the legacies of these figuresRead more..
Young Skins By Colin Barrett Glanbeigh, the fictional Everytown of Mayo native Colin Barrett’s Young Skins, is “nowhere you have been, but you know its ilk,” asserts the narrator of the collection’s opening short story. Barrett borrows from the techniques of William Faulkner and Gabriel García Márquez, immediately setting his debut book in the traditionRead more..
As a work-a-day archival historian, I am generally allergic to historical fiction. But occasionally I discover a novel that reaches into the minds of contemporaries in a way that historians themselves cannot match because they are usually tied to written evidence. Sometimes there is a psychological dimension to historical insight that comes across in theRead more..
FICTION Nora Webster By Colm Tóibín Colm Tóibín’s latest novel Nora Webster finds the gifted Irish author writing one of his most personal novels since Brooklyn. Throughout Nora Webster, Tóibín taps into his early childhood growing up in Wexford, the death of his father, and the perseverance of his mother. His penchant for character-driven plotRead more..