Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 382 - 16 June 2007 - Bloomsday!
Irish Literature & Fiction
The Letters of Bernard Shaw to The Times collected and annotated by Ronald Ford
Trade Paperback; 30 Euro / 40 USD / 20 UK; 316 pages
Shaw lived through a time of great change, in which he played a major role and many of the momentous events of the twentieth century are touched upon in this important collection. "The Times" was a powerful medium not just in England but throughout the empire and in its heyday the views aired in the main articles and the letters columns were heeded and discussed. From his first letter in 1898, Shaw was endeavouring to gain acceptance in the columns of "The Times" in a way that was distinct from his other personae of critic, socialist and playwright. Shaw took on the world of scholars, politicians, critics and the medical profession. He offered advice on economics to different Chancellors and got involved in the campaign for women's rights and the letters range over a wide variety of subjects that include Art, Music, Theatre, Language, Phonetics, Politics, Medicine, Economics and Women's Rights. He became an icon who was labelled by Bertrand Russell as an iconoclast.
Irish Writers on Writing edited by Eavan Boland
Trade Paperback; 24 Euro / 30 USD / 15 UK; 326 pages [Add To Basket]
What does it mean to be a writer in the context of a country’s centuries of uncertainty and upheaval? How does an Irish writer define Irish writing? The writers here, who range from early legends like Yeats to modern masters like Roddy Doyle, address these questions through their sources: the land, the Church, the past, and changing politics and literary styles. The book begins with William Yeats and Augusta Gregory’s dazzling meditations on the founding of the National Theatre as a venue for a new Irish imagination. Lady Gregory herself is the subject of pithy essays by Kate O’Brien and Colm Toibin. Poets discuss their peers — Corkery on the Gaelic poets; Frank O’Connor on Corkery; O’Casey on Yeats; Roddy Doyle on Synge. Emma Donoghue illuminates the life of a lesbian Irish writer, while John Banville excoriates Bloomsday and “the pervasiveness and bathos of the Joyce myth." Irish Writers on Writing raises a toast to one of the world’s most vital literary traditions.
Redemption Falls by Joseph O’Connor
Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 24 USD / 12 UK; 456 pages
A tale of hatreds and mercies, of balladry and the blues, of war and peace and the healing power of forgiveness, Redemption Falls is an epic novel and an unforgettable love story. 1865. The American Civil War is ending. Eighteen years after the famine ship Star of the Sea docked at New York, the daughter of two of her passengers sets out from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on a walk across a devastated America. Eliza Duane Mooney is searching for a young boy she has not seen in four years, one of the hundred thousand children drawn into the war. His fate has been mysterious and will prove extraordinary. It's a walk that will have consequences for many seemingly unconnected survivors: a love-struck cartographer, a haunted Latina poetess, rebel guerrilla Cole McLaurenson, runaway slave Elizabeth Longstreet and the mercurial revolutionary James Con O'Keefe, who commanded a brigade of Irish immigrants in the Union Army and is now Governor of a western wilderness where nothing is as it seems. "Redemption Falls" is a tale of war and forgiveness, of strangers in a strange land, of love put to the ultimate test. Packed with music, balladry, poetry and storytelling, this is a riveting historical novel of urgent contemporary resonance, from the author of the internationally best-selling "Star of the Sea".
Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders by Gyles Brandreth
Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 10 UK; 338 pages [Add To Basket]
This work is set in London, 1889. Oscar Wilde, celebrated poet, wit, playwright and raconteur is the literary sensation of his age. All Europe lies at his feet. Yet when he chances across the naked corpse of sixteen-year-old Billy Wood, posed by candlelight in a dark stifling attic room, he cannot ignore the brutal murder. With the help of fellow author Arthur Conan Doyle he sets out to solve the crime - but it is Wilde's unparalleled access to all degrees of late Victorian life, from society drawing rooms and the bohemian demi-monde to the underclass, that will prove the decisive factor in their investigation of what turns out to be a series of brutal killings. "The Oscar Wilde Murders" is a gripping detective story of corruption and intrigue, of Wilde's growing success, of the breakdown of his marriage, and of his fatal friendship with Aidan Fraser, Inspector at Scotland Yard! Set against the exotic background of fin-de-siecle London, Paris, Oxford and Edinburgh, Gyles Brandreth recreates Oscar Wilde's trademark sardonic wit with huge flair, intertwining all the intrigue of the classic English murder mystery with a compelling portrait of one of the greatest characters of the Victorian age.
Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan
Trade Paperback with Endflaps; 14 Euro / 19 USD / 9.50 UK; 160 pages
A long-haired woman moves into the priest's house and sets fire to his furniture. That Christmas, the electricity goes out. A forester mortgages his land and goes off to a seaside town looking for a wife. He finds a woman eating alone in the hotel. A farmer wakes half-naked and realises the money is almost gone. A Harvard student flies south to celebrate his birthday at his step-father's condominium by the sea. While the scent of hay drifts up from neighbouring fields, a teenage immigrant articulates the reason for her going. And in the title story, a priest waits on the altar for a bride and battles, all that wedding day, with his memories of a love affair. In her long-awaited second collection, Claire Keegan observes an Ireland wrestling with its past, and it is against this landscape that the stories of Walk the Blue Fields so beautifully articulate all the yearnings of the human heart.
Langrishe, Go Down by Aidan Higgins
Paperback; 13 Euro / 17 USD / 10 UK; 260 pages
Imogen Langrishe, youngest of the four Langrishe sisters, whose name has long meant money, status and respect to the people of Celbridge, County Kildare, embarks on a reckless love affair. Set against the backdrop of a crumbling 1930s Europe, this classic Irish novel depicts the demise of the old order of power in Ireland, as Imogen’s loss of inhibition leads her deeper into the sensual yet lonely world of despair and heartbreak. A certified Irish masterpiece!
The Gathering by Anne Enright
Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 10 UK; 260 pages [Add To Basket]
The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam. It wasn’t the drink that killed him – although that certainly helped – it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmother’s house, in the winter of 1968. His sister Veronica was there then, as she is now: keeping the dead man company, just for another little while. The Gathering is a family epic, condensed and clarified through the remarkable lens of Anne Enright’s unblinking eye. It is also a sexual history: tracing the line of hurt and redemption through three generations – starting with the grandmother, Ada Merriman – showing how memories warp and family secrets fester. This is a novel about love and disappointment, about thwarted lust and limitless desire, and how our fate is written in the body, not in the stars. The Gathering sends fresh blood through the Irish literary tradition, combining the lyricism of the old with the shock of the new. As in all Anne Enright’s work, fiction and non-fiction, this is a book of daring, wit and insight: her distinctive intelligence twisting the world a fraction, and giving it back to us in a new and unforgettable light.
Ride On by Stephen J. Martin
Trade Paperback; 10 Euro / 13 USD / 7 UK; 410 pages [Add To Basket]
Having given up his day job in middle management, Jimmy Collins and his band are famous rock stars. With two chart topping singles and an album nearly finished, things couldn't be better for The Grove. While Jimmy isn't too keen on being in the public eye on a regular basis, his drummer Aesop is thoroughly comfortable being a famous rock star and is taking full advantage of the legions of female fans clamouring for his attention. But there's something about Aesop...someone seems to want him very badly, and if she can't have him then no one else is getting him. The Grove need to find a bodyguard. But where are you meant to find a professional who'll put up with someone like Aesop? Who knows what he's like, has extensive Special Forces experience and, most importantly, the patience of a saint? There's only one man for the job but if he's going to do it, he's going to do it his way...
Secret Diary of a Demented Housewife by Niamh Greene
Trade Paperback; 11 Euro / 14 USD / 8 UK; 375 pages [Add To Basket]
When Susie's maiden aunt gives her a housekeeping journal, she expects Susie to use it for jotting down nutritious recipes and planning household budgets. But Susie has more important things on her mind ... Like how to keep sane while trying to control a four-year-old diva who thinks she's Judy Garland, as well as a thrill-seeking toddler with a death wish. Not to mention managing a demanding husband who expects a home-cooked meal at least once a fortnight and inconsiderate parents who seem to think luxury spa breaks are more important than spending time with their grandchildren. On top of that, there's the small matter of the Lone Father at the children's play group who is clearly smitten and Susie's passing interest in Posh'n'Becks, Wayne'n'Colleen, Brad'n'Jen'n'Angelina ... Susie's journal chronicles a hectic year in the life of a stay at home mother, whose one ambition is to possess an outfit that is free of snot stains.
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