Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 106
New Fiction
Wild Decembers by Edna O'Brien (hardback; 16.99 IEP / 21.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
In this novel, the author completes her brilliant depiction of contemporary Ireland, which began with House of Spledid Isolation and continued with Down by the River. In this new novel, the arrival of a tractor, and its enigmatic owner, precipitate a chain of events in an isolated Irish community. Joseph Brennan, who had ruled the mountain, sees in Michael Bugler, the returned exile, a threat. For Breege, Jospeh's younger sister, Bugler is an irresisitble stranger to whose magnetism she must not succumb for fear of betraying her brother. A love-hate story on many levels, this novel explores the depth and darkness at the root of all possession.
Shadowing Hannah by Sara Berkeley (Paperback; 8.99 IEP / 12.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
After leaving Dublin for a new beginning in London, 20 year-old Hanna Newell's life starts to blossom in a haze of carefree indulgence, new friendship, late-night parties and fleeting romance. For the first time ever she enacts the 'normal' life she has crave for so long, and to the outside world it's fairly convincing. Yet shy must hannah maintain a secret PO Box to ensure that no questions are raised about a prolific correspondent form back home? Any why does she feel compelled to remain forever silent about her one true love? As her clandestine ex-lover begins to stalk more that just her thoughts, Hannah's carefully constructed stability turns into a teetering house of cards. Yet is she is every to break free from the steely shackles of this shared, illicity passion, she must ultimately face her demons, head-on and alone. Captivating, controversial and deeply felt, this novel explores the nature of secrets and challenges assumptions about the dark realm of forbidden love.
Derrycloney by Tom Phelan (Paperback; 8.99 IEP / 12.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
In this novel, the author brilliantly captures the voices and characters of a small community in the Irish countryside of the 1940s. The rural rituals, the local rivalries, the affection and disaffections - all are caught in richly textured language, in a progression of solo voices which build into an almost choral work. At the heart of this wonderfully humorous novel lies Derrycloney Lane, where Kate Glanvil tries to keep the peace, while Lizzie Burns plots to steal her dead brother's farm. Missus Brady, who imitates the cries of boiling lobsters, protects the defenceless Benny Cosgrave. Young Liam Glanvil visits the swans at the lake, hearing the music of Saint-Saens, and writes letters to a nun. Meanwhile, Crip Quigley pines for his dead mother, and Billy Bates listens to the trains on a deserted railway bridge at night and dreams about Miss Hippwell. The author warmly evokes an isolated rural community with his keen powers of observation tempered with a forgiving humanity and a striking sense of humour.
Sudden Time by Dermot Healy (Paperback; 10.99 IEP / 16.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
Ollie Ewing is barely surviving. Back home in Sligo, he's collecting trolleys in a supermarket car park and living in a run-down house with a group of art students. He has lost his child-like innocence and he can't escape what has happened in London. Tormented by old fears and regrets, he loses himself in everyday routine and is kept going by his painfully black sense of humour. Finally, Ollie steels himself to return to England to confront his demons. He re-enters a world of casual labout and protection rackets on the building sites of London; a world peopled by sinister figures such as Silver John and Scots Bob; an intimating world of uncertain justice where violence will easily erupt. This is a powerful and shocking psychological thriller, revealing its truth through a growing a awareness of the skewed and unreliable consciousness of its narrator.
Snapdragons by Kitty Fitzgerald (8.99 IEP / 12.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
Sometimes shocking, frequently humorous, often surreal, this novel is a unique and extremely engaging story of two sisters, each of whom is looking for love and salvation in their different ways. Growing up unhappily in post-war Ireland, Bernadette is disliked - for reasons she cannot understand - by her parents, and has a running feud with her sister. She makes her escape to Birmingham, where her sister Deirdre has settled with her husband. There the difficult relationship between the two sisters is further strained when Bernie discovers how Deirdre is living. Meanwhile, Bernie comes to terms with the teeming activity that revolves around the pub in Digbeth End where she works and lives. This novel memorably combines often startling realism with warmth, humour and a wonderfully light touch.
Nell's Novel by Maeve Flanagan (Paperback; 7.99 IEP / 11.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
Nell Hynes is unquestionably a novelist - she has two books to her credit, one a bodice-ripper as in Catherine Cookson meets Maria Edgeworth, the other a Kafkaesque view of modern Dublin. She is also a teacher of English in a good Dublin secondary school, who was told at her creative writing evening class to prepare a sample chapter and an outline of a possible novel. Being a naturally efficient and highly literate person, she works in what free time she has to produce two! Not since At Swim-Two-Birds has a novel about the writing of a novel been so funny or so wry. The author's character, who anticipated glittering literary prizes in her daydreams before her books are even published, is one of the wittiest, most resourceful and delightful creation ever to flow from the pen of an Irish writer.
Rellighan: Undertaker by J.M. O'Neill (8.99 IEP / 12.00 USD) [Add To Basket]
In a small rural town in Ireland, nothing is as it appears. Ester Machen brings with her a mystery, and death is stalking the young people of the town. Though 'the town is talking', the only person determined to get to the bottom of the mystery is the detective Coleman. He has few allies, but Rellighan the undertaker gradually assists him in attempting to reveal and rid the town of the terror that has grown with it. They both risk death but unfalteringly continue to unveil the mustery, becoming deeply embroiled in the dark world of the occult as they strive to eradicate evil.
The Deposition of Father McGreevy by Brian O'Doherty (Hardback; 20.00 IEP / 27.50 USD) [Add To Basket]
In a London pub in the 1950s, editor William Maginn is intrigued by a mention of the strange - and reputedly shameful - demise of a remote mountain village in County Kerry, Ireland, where he was born. Maginn returns to Ireland and uncers an astonishing take: both the account of the destruction of a place and a way of life which once preserved Ireland's ancient traditions and the tragedy of an increasingly isolated village where all the women mysteriously die - leaving the priest, Father McGreevy, to cope with insoluble problems. As war rages through Europe, McGreevy struggles to preserve what remains of his parish against the rough mountain elements and the grief and superstitutions of his people, and the growing distrust of the town below. An engrossing narrative in prose filled with grace and poetry, this novel explores the locus of misfortune and the very nature of evil.
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