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Book review: Surviving a massacre, and the lasting emotional toll it takes
Book review: Surviving a massacre, and the lasting emotional toll it takes
Tipperary-born musician Stephen Travers was a member of the Miami Showband and had witnessed the brutal murders of three of his bandmates by the UVF in Co Down in 1975

Fri, 12 Sep, 2025

AMANDA CASSIDY
Book review: Thrilling mystery is a must read
Amanda Cassidy crafts a tense, atmospheric narrative in 'The Stranger Inside', with plenty of moral ambiguity and a constant undercurrent of dread

Sat, 06 Sep, 2025

Books are my business: Chair of Bookselling Ireland Maria Dickenson 
Books are my business: Chair of Bookselling Ireland Maria Dickenson 
Bookselling Ireland is the Irish branch of Booksellers Association in the UK

Sat, 06 Sep, 2025

Beginner’s pluck: Company co-owner and director Joseph Birchall
Beginner’s pluck: Company co-owner and director Joseph Birchall
'I would love to have led a life like Beckett — to have lived in Paris with life being all about the writing'

Sat, 06 Sep, 2025

Book review: Mystery keeps ahead of the chasing pack
Book review: Mystery keeps ahead of the chasing pack
'Dark Horse' is gripping and it’s fast-paced, driven by the interesting characters and a plot which keeps you guessing

Sat, 06 Sep, 2025

Book review: Pop psychology, testing friendships, and plenty of commercial tropes
Book review: Pop psychology, testing friendships, and plenty of commercial tropes
At times predictable, this novel has all the ingredients of emotional chick lit, with dollops of pop psychology thrown in

Sat, 06 Sep, 2025

David Trimble death
Book review: The arc of change — from firebrand unionist to unlikely peacemaker
Stephen Walker’s fine biography will ensure David Trimble will be long remembered as a flawed man who made an enduring impact on the lives of many in bringing peace to Northern Ireland

Fri, 05 Sep, 2025

Author interview: Novel imagines Jane Austen falling in love at the seaside
Author interview: Novel imagines Jane Austen falling in love at the seaside
Paula Byrne, an Austen scholar, was inspired to write 'Six Weeks by the Sea' because the question she is most frequently asked about the author is 'did she ever fall in love?'

Fri, 05 Sep, 2025

Books are my business: Executive librarian Margaret O'Sullivan
Books are my business: Executive librarian Margaret O'Sullivan
'There is nothing I don’t like about working in the library. I have been at it for 34 years now and I still love it'

Sat, 30 Aug, 2025

Book review: A quiet story of personal crisis that swells into tumultuous tide of history
Book review: A quiet story of personal crisis that swells into tumultuous tide of history
'Conversations with the Sea' is a precise, masterly novel that encompasses themes of trauma, displacement, war, history, love, hope, and hopelessness

Sat, 30 Aug, 2025

Beginner’s pluck: Former teacher Aisling Rawle
Beginner’s pluck: Former teacher Aisling Rawle
'The Compound' is an addictive, beautifully-paced look at consumerism and a wish for fame in a mildly dystopian future

Sat, 30 Aug, 2025

Book review: Brilliance of a true wordsmith
Book review: Brilliance of a true wordsmith
Adrian Kenny’s collection of short stories can be described as an evolved exploration of the human condition

Sat, 30 Aug, 2025

Book review: Stuart Neville returns with ravenous, bloody sequel
Book review: Stuart Neville returns with ravenous, bloody sequel
Horrific tale hits close to home while highlighting an important message: Be careful who you trust, anyone could be lurking in the night

Sat, 30 Aug, 2025

AM-FM frequency indicator of retro radio
Karl Whitney: Don’t touch that dial: Talking about books on the radio
Writers don’t really get tutored in the art of talking about their book on the radio, where conversations thrive on small talk

Fri, 29 Aug, 2025

Chris Newens
Author interview: ‘Food is one of the most immediate languages any place speaks’
'Moveable Feasts' is divided into 20 chapters, each devoted to the search for a dish representative of one of Paris’ 20 arrondissements

Mon, 25 Aug, 2025

Book review: All in the mind: A vision of hell in which all torments are interior
Book review: All in the mind: A vision of hell in which all torments are interior
The characters in 'The Sleepers' drift on seas of sadness and self-loathing, coupling and decoupling, riding out storms of anxiety that exhaust them further

Sat, 23 Aug, 2025

The New York Times Book Review Live
Book review: Plucky lead, passable novel
'Vera, or Faith' is written in breezy, readable prose that offers wry observations about family, love, sex, learning, culture wars, and the wider dynamics of American politics and society

Sat, 23 Aug, 2025

Book review: A sensitive unspooling of self
Book review: A sensitive unspooling of self
Yasmin Zaher’s 'The Coin' is a compulsive read, built with startling prose and observation

Sat, 23 Aug, 2025

Book review: Punished by a kindness to strangers
Book review: Punished by a kindness to strangers
'Two Kinds of Stanger' is the ninth book in Steve Cavanagh’s series featuring criminal defence attorney Eddie Flynn

Sat, 23 Aug, 2025

Beginner’s pluck: Swedish photographer Lina Scheynius
Beginner’s pluck: Swedish photographer Lina Scheynius
'Diary of an Ending' is a hybrid of memoir and autofiction that explores ideas about art and creativity, sex, and passion

Sat, 23 Aug, 2025

A boy turning the pages of a book while reading
Children's book reviews: 12 books for August with Children's Books Ireland
Ruth Concannon says Intrigue is key: From becoming an older sibling to teenager troubles

Fri, 22 Aug, 2025

Heather Clark by Beowulf Sheehan
Author interview: ‘I took a risk publishing this book but it meant a lot to me’
Heather Clark's 'The Scrapbook' shines a light on what men bore witness to as soldiers in the Second World War

Fri, 22 Aug, 2025

Colm Tóibín returns as president of Listowel Writers’ Week
Colm Tóibín returns as president of Listowel Writers’ Week
Brooklyn author to return after resigning in 2022

Thu, 21 Aug, 2025

Children's books review: Three local reads to consider for your younger reader
Children's books review: Three local reads to consider for your younger reader
Three books from Irish authors that your child may enjoy.

Mon, 18 Aug, 2025

Book review: Utopian resolve in the face of Tudor tyranny
Book review: Utopian resolve in the face of Tudor tyranny
Joanne Paul’s biography of Thomas More is a meticulous account of a clever late-medieval Londoner and a tale of social mobility too

Mon, 18 Aug, 2025

Beginner’s pluck: Karin Walker’s brilliant summer read
Beginner’s pluck: Karin Walker’s brilliant summer read
This heartwarming novel focuses on three women as they negotiate huge life changes. Will their friendship survive all the deception?

Mon, 18 Aug, 2025

Understanding the ‘extreme centre’ of Syria after Assad
Understanding the ‘extreme centre’ of Syria after Assad
The 14 years under Assad’s authoritarian leadership has been brutal but now Syria is facing many other challenges, including a recent surge of sectarian violence

Mon, 18 Aug, 2025

Book review: Humour and author’s voice stand out in collection
Book review: Humour and author’s voice stand out in collection
The standout qualities of de Celia de Fréine’s collection are voice and humour

Mon, 18 Aug, 2025

Book review: Duffy returns for more Ulster noir
Book review: Duffy returns for more Ulster noir
Having mined some of the darkest chapters in the province to excellent effect, Adrian McKinty and Sean Duffy have moved on to the 1990s

Mon, 18 Aug, 2025

Books are my business: Write by the Sea festival chair Sasha Wilson
Books are my business: Write by the Sea festival chair Sasha Wilson
Looking for a volunteer opportunity during the pandemic led to the discovery of a local literary festival in Co Wexford

Mon, 11 Aug, 2025

FRANCE-ART-LITERATURE-POLAR-PORTRAIT
Book review: Karin Slaughter revisits familiar territory — but this time it's personal 
Absorbing novel from the author of the Grant County and Will Trent series will have readers looking forward to the next episode

Sat, 09 Aug, 2025

Westminster Houses of Parliament London Burning
Book review: A very readable and expertly paced quest for a past love in post-apocalyptic London
Migraine presents a disturbing vision of where humanity might be headed, but it is also hopeful

Sat, 09 Aug, 2025

Apple TV+ "Lady In The Lake" New York Premiere
Book review: Labyrinthine plot a lottery offering a frothy concoction
With a fire, an insurance claim, a vengeful action, and a whole series of ‘coincidences’ experienced by Mrs Blossom, you’ve got quite a mystery

Sat, 09 Aug, 2025

Beginner's pluck: Writer and student Austin Taylor
Beginner's pluck: Writer and student Austin Taylor
After deferring her place at Harvard Law School, Austin wrote her first novel. But it is her second novel, Notes on Infinity, again written during a year out of college, that has recently been published

Sat, 09 Aug, 2025

Book review: The Cork brothers at the birth of Irish cinema
Book review: The Cork brothers at the birth of Irish cinema
The Horgan brothers from Youghal, Co Cork, were among the earliest adaptors of the Lumière’s cinema ideas. Their eight decades of work has been detailed by Darina Clancy

Sat, 09 Aug, 2025

illustration drawing in pencil figure of a girl with wings as a symbol of flight against the backdrop of the blue sky and clou
Book Review: A treasure trove of folk tales
The Anthology of Irish Folk Tales: Volume Two  Extract: Inchiquin Lake: Never Disturb A Woman at Her Knitting Editor/author: Ruth Marshall BEFORE there was a lake or ...

Fri, 08 Aug, 2025

Demonstrators Holding Portraits of Khomeini
Book review: Downfall of last shah of Iran
One of the often-universal themes in this wonderful book is how autocracies that outstay their welcome are often replaced by usurpers far worse than they were

Sat, 02 Aug, 2025

Book review: Fact and fiction intermingle, but this elegant novel is more than memoir
Book review: Fact and fiction intermingle, but this elegant novel is more than memoir
Bea and Lucy, the protagonists of Esther Freud's first novel, negotiate their teenage years in 'My Sister and Other Lovers'

Sat, 02 Aug, 2025

Book review: Up in flames — a labour of love to history
Book review: Up in flames — a labour of love to history
'The Great Liberties Whiskey Fire' is a short but interesting read and must encourage others with a particular interest in an almost forgotten event to put pen to paper

Sat, 02 Aug, 2025

Beginner’s pluck: Cork-born author Barbara Leahy
Beginner’s pluck: Cork-born author Barbara Leahy
Since leaving university, Barbara has worked full-time in admin — fitting writing in during evenings and at weekends

Sat, 02 Aug, 2025

Poetry review: The fine art of surprise
Poetry review: The fine art of surprise
The characters in this collection are portrayed with affection and empathy but their lives are never romanticised; there’s a darkness hidden beneath the surface of many of these poems

Sat, 02 Aug, 2025

Children's books review: Fresh tales well worth racing off to the bookstore to grab
Children's books review: Fresh tales well worth racing off to the bookstore to grab
Pet O’Connell rounds up a fresh selection of the latest children’s books, from the understanding of individuality, to stories from two Irish racing legends

Fri, 01 Aug, 2025

Author interview: Celebrating the Irish brothers who captured their moments in time
Author interview: Celebrating the Irish brothers who captured their moments in time
The Horgan brothers from Youghal, Co Cork, were pioneers in the fields of photography and cinema, leaving behind an invaluable chronicle of a formative chapter in our creative history

Fri, 01 Aug, 2025

Sarah Jessica Parker in possible conflict of interest over Booker longlisted author
Sarah Jessica Parker in possible conflict of interest over Booker longlisted author
Actor and book prize judge’s production company in process of developing novel by Claire Adam

Wed, 30 Jul, 2025

Revealed: The 13 authors in the running for the Booker Prize 2025
Revealed: The 13 authors in the running for the Booker Prize 2025
The ‘Booker Dozen’ features nine nationalities across four continents

Tue, 29 Jul, 2025

Books are my business: Tramp Press founders Sarah Davis-Goff and Lisa Coen
Books are my business: Tramp Press founders Sarah Davis-Goff and Lisa Coen
‘No better feeling in the world’ than discovering new authors

Sat, 26 Jul, 2025

Book review: Casual misogyny and classism abound in beautifully tackled tale of consent
Book review: Casual misogyny and classism abound in beautifully tackled tale of consent
This vibrant, sometimes hilarious, at times bleak novel set in Belfast, featuring a rich cast of distinctly ‘Erskinesque’ characters is highly recommended

Sat, 26 Jul, 2025

Book review: Familial bonds tested in harsh locale
Book review: Familial bonds tested in harsh locale
Hazel Gaynor's 'Before Dorothy' is moving and uplifting, and you will also learn a lot about the 1920s and 1930s in the US

Sat, 26 Jul, 2025

Beginner’s pluck: Full-time writer Grace Flahive
Beginner’s pluck: Full-time writer Grace Flahive
Funny and heartwarming, 'Palm Meridian' novel portrays a realistic, yet not dystopian view of the future

Sat, 26 Jul, 2025

UK. Gillian Anderson in (C)Black Bear film: The Salt Path (2024). Plot: A couple lose their home and later discover the husband
Karl Whitney: On true stories: If reality is a show, then we want our narrator to win
As fundamentally optimistic readers, we want to see our literature conform to the worldview of how to overcome adversity

Fri, 25 Jul, 2025

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