PAGES devoured: 216. Embarrassing laugh-out-loud moments on public transport: numerous. Overall thoughts on latest Bridget Jones book: V.v.v. gd.

SINCE the publication of the collection of stories, A Lazy Eye, back in 1993, it has been clear that Mary Morrissy has talent to burn. 

JULIAN BARNES transports us back to the former Soviet Union’s days of “endless terror” for his first novel since winning the Man Booker Prize in 2011. 

BILL CLEGG was a powerhouse literary agent whose crack addiction became both his downfall and the source of his personal renaissance. 

Leader’s account of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist weighs in at 812 pages, and this is only Part One, taking us up to the third of Bellow’s five marriages, writing of Humboldt’s Gift, and a secure position at the very summit of American letters.

Anne Enright’s latest novel The Green Road is set on that great Irish battleground — the family. She spoke to Caroline O’Doherty about the institution and all its foibles — and trying to be an inspiring teacher.

Irvine Welsh’s new novel, A Decent Ride, follows swaggering taxi driver ‘Juice’ Terry Lawson around Edinburgh. It’s another tale of hard-living in Scotland, even as Welsh mixes with celebrities in the US, writes Richard Fitzpatrick.           

A Man Of Good Hope

Richard Fitzpatrick reveals some books that are certain to cause a stir this spring.

The Zone Of Interest

Fumio Obata

Bleeding Edge

The weeks book reviews in brief

Solo

Daniel Day-Lewis is wanted for the role of James Bond.

JP O’Malley talks to the 55-year-old Booker Prize winner about his new novel The Guts and what it’s like to become more like his father as he gets older

The title of the first Bridget Jones novel in 14 years has been announced – 'Mad About The Boy'.

Levels of Life

The graphic novel has moved far beyond its superhero beginnings, says Don Mahony

The Vanishing Point

Sweet Tooth

MASS MARKETFICTION

THE FIRST thing you see when you walk into the James Bond exhibition Designing 007 — 50 Years of Bond Style, in London, is a dead body, a naked, gold, female dead body, face down on a bed.

Lionel Asbo:The State of England

The Red House

Skagboys

Richard Fitzpatrick talks to Kevin Barry about his new book, Dark Lies the Island which is just about to be published . . . and UFOs over Lough Arrow

Justice for My Son

MASS MARKETFICTION

The Locked Ward: The Memoir Of A Psychiatric Orderly

Don O’Mahony on the burgeoning business of graphic novels and comic art

Biography

Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero. Grant Morrison Jonathan Cape; £17.99

Jaycee’s living hell - A Stolen Life, Jaycee Dugard. Simon and Schuster €13.99, eBook: not available.

The Dubious Salvation Of Jack V.

OTTO the Book Bear, by Kate Cleminson (Jonathan Cape; €7.10), lives in a book. At night, when all is quiet, he comes to life and explores the house, reads stories and writes.

Newly published this week

Bullfighting

KEVIN BARRY’S new novel about a futuristic west of Ireland ruled by violence and fear, ‘City of Bohane’, is drawing superlatives like a magnet attracts iron filings, and the genial Limerick native doesn’t hold back when it comes to his own interest in sport.

A Hundred Doors

C

Ian McEwan