Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 240
New Irish Fiction
Number 5 by Glenn Patterson
Hardback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 17.50 UK; 308 pages
(Also available in Trade Paperback: 15.00 Euro / 16.50 USD / 10.00 UK; 308 pages) [Add To Basket]
One house, five families, four and a half decades; from the 1950s to the present. In this compelling, engaging and deeply moving novel, the successive occupants of a three-bedroomeed terraced house go about the complicated business of keeping themselves and a home together in a place that the rest of the world knows as Belfast, but to them is just 'the town'. Things happen that might happen anywhere, and things happen that could happen nowhere else, sometimes as noises off, and sometimes on the front doorstep. But whatever happens, they get up the next day, like everyone else, and carry on.
There is Stella, haunted by the thought that she will die young, like her mother, and unfulfilled; Rodney, clinging to the dream of a cosmopolitan life; young Tan, faced with the dilemma of where he begins and friendship ends; Catriona, watching her husband and children undergo a strange transformation; Mel, pushing thirty, living with Toni, wondering whether they will ever share more than ownership of an industrial vacuum cleaner. And always, across the street, there is Ivy. One family moves out, another moves in. This novel is about continuity and renewal in the face of life's disruptions. It is about the traces that, sometimes without our knowing, we leave behind.
Skin of Dreams by Evelyn Conlon
Trade Paperback; 16.50 Euro / 19.00 USD / 11.50 UK; 231 pages [Add To Basket]
This is fiction with a sharp documentary edge; the story, set in Ireland and the United States, of one woman's encounter with murder, justice and execution. After the death of their parents, twins Maud and Malachy clear their house; Maud finds the hidden secret of a relation who was hanged in the 1940s. But she doesn't tell her brother, despite their closeness. It is obvious to her that the man was innocent, and she becomes obsessed by the subject. She finds out what information she can, visits the jail where he was hanged and eventually is drawn to America because that is the only place which executes in the same language. This moving novel confronts the experience of capital punishment and the effect it can have. It is also about the love between twins, and the loss of balance when a relationship is interrupted.
Sophisticated Boom Boom by John Kelly
Trade Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 17.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 194 pages [Add To Basket]
In Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, in the 1970s, nothing happens. Every day. Teenagers Declan Lydon and his trusted friend Spit Maguire stand under lampposts, in their circles of saliva, waiting to be overtake by some hormonal storm, to be enveloped by strange women, to finally make some connection with the glorious, glamorous world they know is out there somewhere. Their salvation - and release from the grinding tedium and bewilderment of small-town adolescence - comes through music. When, miraculously, Thin Lizzy come to town, Declan goes in to the concert in his brown cardigan and emerges wearing a black leather jacket … This novel is a tender, hilarious account of the agonies and absurdities of growing up in a backwater of pebbledash and Space Invaders - about the loyalty of friends as they stumble together through the awkward years of puberty into an equally confusing independence, for which they are seriously under-prepared.
Sophisticated Boom Boom by John Kelly
Trade Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 17.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 194 pages [Add To Basket]
In Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, in the 1970s, nothing happens. Every day. Teenagers Declan Lydon and his trusted friend Spit Maguire stand under lampposts, in their circles of saliva, waiting to be overtake by some hormonal storm, to be enveloped by strange women, to finally make some connection with the glorious, glamorous world they know is out there somewhere. Their salvation - and release from the grinding tedium and bewilderment of small-town adolescence - comes through music. When, miraculously, Thin Lizzy come to town, Declan goes in to the concert in his brown cardigan and emerges wearing a black leather jacket … This novel is a tender, hilarious account of the agonies and absurdities of growing up in a backwater of pebbledash and Space Invaders - about the loyalty of friends as they stumble together through the awkward years of puberty into an equally confusing independence, for which they are seriously under-prepared.
The White Russian by Tom Bradby
Trade Paperback; 20.00 Euro / 23.00 USD / 14.00 UK; 445 pages
(Also Available in Hardback: 35.00 Euro / 40.00 USD / 20.00 UK)
Set in St. Petersburg in 1917. The capital of the glittering Empire of the Tsars and a city on the brink of revolution where the jackals of the Secret Police intrigue for their own survival as their aristocratic masters indulge in on last, desperate round of hedonism. For Sandro Ruzsky, Chief Investigator of the city police, even this decaying world provides the opportunity for a new beginning. Banished to Siberia for four years for pursuing a case his superiors would rather he'd quietly buried, Ruzsky finds himself investigating the murders of a young couple out on the ice of the frozen river Neva. The dead girl was a nanny at the Imperial Palace, the man an American from Chicago and, if the brutality of their deaths seems an allegory for the times, Ruzsky finds that, at every turn, the investigation leads dangerously close to home. At the heart of the case lies Maria, the beautiful ballerina Ruzsky once loved and lost. But is she a willing participant in what appears to be a dangerous conspiracy or likely to be its next victim? In a city at war with itself, and pitted against a ruthless murderer who relishes taunting him, Ruzsky finds himself at last face to face with his own past as he fights to save everything he cares for, before the world into which he was born goes up in flames.
Betrayed by Brendan DuBois
Paperback; 11.00 Euro / 12.50 USD / 8.00 UK; 500 pages [Add To Basket]
When Jason Harper's doorbell rings late at night, he can scarcely believe who is standing on this porch: Roy, his elder brother, who three decades earlier went to Vietnam as a pilot and never returned, presumed 'missing in action'. Where has he been? Why hasn't he contacted them? When Roy is insistent that no one should know he is there, Jason suspects that something strange is going on. And then two further visitors arrive - the sort who don't bother to knock - and his worst possible fears are realized. Jason may be a successful local newspaper editor, but nothing can prepare him for the astonishing story his brother reveals. It is a scandal as explosive as Watergate, and one that powerful and sinister forces will stop at nothing to keep secret. Jason soon realizes that by helping Roy he is putting his own life in terrible danger, but after all these years he cannot let his brother down …
Bottling It Up by John P. Rooney
Paperback; 12.50 Euro / 15.00 USD . 10.00 UK; 252 pages [Add To Basket]
Paul is forty-five and still fancies himself a bit of a lad. But just as he's convincing himself that he deserves another bite at the cherry he finds that his body has other ideas. High blood pressure, the doctor says, probably caused by stress. 'Nothing wrong with stress. It's how you handle it. Don't bottle things up!' Paul resolves to take the doctor's advice: no more harbouring resentments, no more biting the lip, and definitely no more Mr. Nice Guy. It's all a bit of a shock for his wife, his bosses and his colleagues. It's even more or a shock for the workers on the Belfast building sites he has to inspect in his work as an architect. In that shady world of scams, protection rackets and dodgy brickies with even dodgier friends, sensible people just avert their eyes. That's what Paul used to do - but now he's got his blood pressure to consider.
Home Turf by M.J. Quinn
Paperback; 12.50 Euro / 15.00 USD . 10.00 UK; 212 pages [Add To Basket]
An eerie phone call from his father puzzles Tom McDermott, a New York magazine editor. Shortly after, he learns that his father's body has been found on a beach near his home on the north Atlantic coast of Ireland. Forced to visit Ireland to sort out the funeral arrangements, Tom discovers the land of his forebears for the first time - the wild beauty of land and sea, the warmth of the people and the undercurrents of age-old divisions. He begins to receive regular visitations from his father's ghost and gradually becomes aware of supernatural influences in his own ancestry. Above all, he finds that he must face up to elements of his psyche that until now he has been able to ignore. A return to his frenetic but at heart solitary New York existence begins to seem impossible.
There is a House by Kieron Connolly
Paperback; 13.00 Euro / 16.50 USD / 10.50 UK; 218 pages [Add To Basket]
This is a simple story about love, nothing too complicated. Paul Conroy is a writer. The only thing is, he can't write, nor do anything else for that matter. He's not too happy. Caroline Doran is the object of Paul's affection. Only he can't get her attention. But then that's what Valentine's cards are for. She might be happy at the moment, or she might not, but Paul thinks he'd be able to make her even happier, if she'd just give him a chance.
Paul likes drinks that are soft. He also likes bars, and spending time in the company of people like Joe the communist, Frank the barber and Jesus Christ. They eat soup and do other ordinary and extraordinary things. In this tale of love and ambition, the author brings the reader on a journey that encompasses the past, the present and the future.
The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor
Paperback; 12.50 Euro / 14.00 USD / 8.99 UK; 228 pages [Add To Basket]
Captain Gault had seen off the three intruders easily enough. They had come in the night with the intention of firing the house, but a single shot had sent them scuttling back into the darkness. One, though, had been wounded and for that the Gaults were not forgiven: sooner or later there would be trouble again. Other big-house families had been driven out - the Morells from Clashmore, the Gouvernets, the Priors, and the Swifts. It was time to go.
But Lucy, soon to be nine, the only child of the household, could not bear the thought of leaving Lahardane. Her world was the old house itself, the woods of the glen, the farm animals, and the walk along the seashore to school. All of that she loved and as the day of departure grew closer she determined that this exile should not take place. But chance changed everything, bringing about a calamity so terrible that it might have been a punishment, so vicious that it blighted the lives of all the Gaults for many years to come.
This novel by one of Ireland's finest writers begins in rural Cork in 1921, in a country still in turmoil. The old order has fragmented; a way of life is already over. Trevor brilliantly conveys the disquiet and confusion that colour the story of Lucy Gault as it's told while happens, in towns and countryside, and told again when passing time has made it different.
Poetry
No Vague Utopia by Emily Cullen
Paperback; 10.00 Euro / 11.50 USD / 7.00 UK; 48 pages [Add To Basket]
From the Introduction by Dr. Sean Ryder of the National University of Ireland in Galway: 'Emily Cullen, to borrow a phrase from Thomas Hardy, is someone who notices things. The things she notices came from all sorts of encounters and events - a nightclub gig, a shopping trip, a tornado warning, a glance at a thumbnail, a smell of tea brewing, a painful and anxious meeting with a loved one. The things she notices are often simple and quotidian, but like all good poets, she makes them greatly significant.
Emily's poems are more than just a matter of well-crafted images and scenarios though. What is remarkable about these poems is the way in which the sensuous seamlessly links with the reflective; feeling linked to thought. … The tone of Emily's work is often wistful, matching the reflective tendencies of the poems. There is wit and humour here too, though. … These are not poems full of verbal fireworks, but they are poems of great verbal skill. … This is a volume that reminds you what poetry can do that other kinds of writing can't.'
Winter in the Eye: New and Selected Poems by Joan McBreen
Paperback; 12.00 Euro / 13.50 USD / 8.50 UK
(Also Available in Hardback; 20.00 Euro / 24.50 USD / 15.50 UK; 92 pages)
This book brings together Joan McBreen's recent work with poems selected from her two previous collections. This volume captures her elegant and finely tuned lyric voice. A subtle simplicity of language makes her pomes of places and home all the more powerful; highlighting moments of universal awareness and reaching beyond the poet's life into the reader's. McBreen's recent poems about illness and loss are written with a spare, unflinching beauty. Her moving, elegiac tone is ultimately a celebration, as darkness gives way to light. This is a poetry that seeks and reaches toward harmony, and truth.
The Street: Poems and Ballads by John B. Keane
Paperback; 10.00 Euro / 12.00 USD / 8.00 UK; 88 pages
Listowel man John B. Keane, who died in May 2002, was an Irish literary legend. This book is an expanded version of a previously published collection of poetry, and also includes his songs and ballads. John B. Keane wrote poems at different times in his life. As a young man, he wrote quite a lot, but as he turned his attention more and more to his plays, his poetic output understandably diminished. This new collection has all the imaginative vitality and variety, the linguistic energy, the blend of humour and compassion, the sharp powers of observation, the love of nature, the understanding of people, the love of music, the lifelong appreciation of drink and drinking companions, and that tolerant open-mindedness towards different kinds of experience that characterises all his work.
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