Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 365 - 3 February 2007
Irish Fiction
Guide to Irish Fiction, 1650 – 1900 by Rolf & Magda Loeber
Hardback; 90 Euro / 140 USD / 75 UK; 1300 pages
Most Irish fiction published between 1650 and 1900 has fallen into virtual oblivion. Research by the Loebers for their "Guide to Irish Fiction" has led to the identification of hundreds of unknown or forgotten Irish authors and their works, and provides thousands of summaries of novels and anthologies. Carefully documented, "A Guide to Irish Fiction" presents details of the publication of Irish fiction in Ireland, England, and North America, as well as several other European countries. Written for literary scholars and students, this book constitutes an essential tool for historians, librarians and antiquarian booksellers.
Creatures of the Earth: New and Selected Stories by John McGahern
Hardback; Publishers Recommended Price: 28 Euro. Read Ireland Book Review Special Price: 22 Euro / 28 USD / 17 UK; 408 pages [Add To Basket]
When the collection was first published in 1992, the "Sunday Times" said 'there is a vivid pleasure to be had in the reading of these stories', while for Cressida Connolly in the "Evening Standard" 'these wonderful stories are sad and true...McGahern is undoubtedly a great short story writer'. Many of the stories here are already classics: "Gold Watch", "High Ground" and "Parachutes", among others. McGahern's spare, restrained yet powerfully lyrical language draws meaning from the most ordinary situations, and turns apparently undramatic encounters into profoundly haunting events: a man visits his embittered father with his new wife; an ageing priest remembers a funeral he had attended years before; a boy steals comics from a shop to escape the rain-bound melancholy of a seaside holiday; and an ageing teacher, who has escaped a religious order, wastes his life in a rural backwater that he knows he will never leave.
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell
Large Format Paperback; 15 Euro / 18 USD / 11 UK; 245 pages
A significant departure for Maggie O'Farrell in terms of maturity and style, THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX" "will be one of the unmissable publishing events of 2006. Set between the 1930s,and the present, Maggie O'Farrell's new novel is the story of Esme, a woman edited out of her family's history, and of the secrets that come to light when, sixty years later, she is released from care, and a young woman, Iris, discovers the great aunt she never knew she had. The mystery that unfolds is the heartbreaking tale of two sisters in colonial India and 1930s Edinburgh - of the loneliness that binds them together and the rivalries that drive them apart, and lead one of them to a shocking betrayal - but above all it is the story of Esme, a fiercely intelligent, unconventional young woman, and of the terrible price she is made to pay for her family's unhappiness. This is vintage Maggie O'Farrell: an impassioned, intense, haunting family drama - a stunning imagining of a life stolen, and reclaimed.
Billy, Come Home by Mary Rose Callaghan
Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 19 USD / 10 UK; 201 pages [Add To Basket]
A compelling, dramatic story of schizophrenia, murder and the rush to judgement; a story of prejudice and consequent tragedy. A teenage girl is brutally murdered, and Billy, a schizophrenic, is accused. With its echoes of cases such as the Jill Dando murder, this moving and topical novel about society's failure towards the mentally ill tells an engrossing, resonant story. This moving novel is about a mentally ill man and his need for a home. It is also a mystery novel, set in present day suburbia. A thirty-year old woman travels to London to identify a body that has been fished out of the Thames; it is believed to be that of her brother, Billy. The narrative flashes back to the brutal murder of a teenage girl when Billy is regarded suspiciously by the neighbours, one of whom sends poison pen letters.
“At the heart of this innocent-seeming novel lies a scathing critique of attitudes to mental illness. Mary Rose Callaghan’s velvet-gloved hand wields a pen as sharp as a razor. An honest look at how we really are, this is not a novel to forget in a hurry.” Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Orange Prize shortlisted novelist.
Baby Zero by Emer Martin
Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 19 USD / 10 UK; 310 pages
In an unheard of country, each successive Taliban-like regime turns the year back to zero, as if to begin history again. An Irish-born woman, Marguerite, imprisoned for fighting the fundamentalist government, is pregnant. To retain her sanity she tells her unborn child the story of three baby zeros – all girls from a family that has been scattered across the globe, some to Los Angeles and some to Ireland, all born at times of upheaval. Despite its unflinching portrayal of extreme oppression, Baby Zero constantly bubbles with humorous incident and characters, presenting a compelling and entertaining satire on both east and west.
The Luck Penny by John Maher
Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 19 USD / 10 UK; 295 pages
In the summer of 1849 Queen Victoria is on the throne; the British Empire is at its zenith; the Californian gold rush has started, and cholera stalks the streets of London. In an Irish rectory, his wife and younger daughter away in London, Dr John Drew finds the peace and quiet to work on a cuneiform inscription of Darius the Great from Persepolis. But now his fellow translator has abandoned him, his maid has run out on him, his older daughter has eloped with a Catholic farmer, and a murder suspect comes calling...
The Luck Penny is a tale of a man and a woman and the secret scriptures of the dead. It is a tale of coming to terms with that tragedy of tragedies: the death of a child. The Luck Penny, ultimately, is about the victory of life over memory.
All Because of You by Melissa Hill
Large Format Paperback; 13 Euro / 17 USD / 9 UK; 325 pages [Add To Basket]
Some things really do happen for a reason … Tara Harrington’s life seems perfect – a successful career as a life coach, the flashy sports car to match, and a happy home with Glenn. But when Tara’s difficult younger sister Emma announces she’s pregnant, and refuses to divulge who the father is, suspicions are aroused all round. Best-friend Liz’s fairytale husband, Eric, suddenly doesn’t seem so Prince Charming any more, and their dream move from the city to the country isn’t working out as planned. Can Tara help her friend through it? Glamorous London PR girl Natalie has everything she ever wanted – except a husband. And when Tara agrees to coach her in landing the latest ‘man of her dreams’, the two women soon find they have more in common than either had imagined. Can Tara make it on her own? Will Liz secure her family idyll in the country? And will Natalie finally find love with a man who deserves her?
The Gatemaker by Christine Dwyer Hickey
Large Format Paperback; 12 Euro / 16 USD / 9 UK [Add To Basket]
In this, the final book of Christine Dwyer Hickey's masterful trilogy, the Dancer (of the first book) is relocated to a house in one foe the new Corporation estates in the Dublin suburb of Crumlin. This novel explores the lives of his three sons, Herbert (The Gatemaker of the Title), George and Charlie. A night's drunken escapade in Dublin ends in tragedy and shame for the family. Elegantly written, brimming with beautiful descriptive passages and peopled with rich cast of superbly drawn characters, The Gatemaker, which covers the period from 1939 to 1953, is a moving and elegiac depiction of life in Dublin and of the fortunes - and tragic misfortunes - of one extended family that has, within a generation, come from prosperity to something approaching respectable poverty.
The Hat Shop on the Corner by Marita Conlon-McKenna
Large Format Paperback; Publishers Recommended Price: 18 Euro. Read Ireland Book Review Special Price: 14 Euro / 18 USD / 10 UK; 336 pages [Add To Basket]
On her mother's death Ellie Matthews inherits her hat shop in Dublin. Ellie resists the temptation to sell out to developers and decides to keep the shop and continue her mother's business. She begins to design and make beautiful hats and as word spreads, finds herself making hats for an unusual range of customers. Ellie makes 'A Show Hat' for a model for Ladies' Day at the Dublin races, 'A Wedding Hat' for Constance O'Kelly for her daughter's wedding, to which her ex-husband is insisting on bringing his new girlfriend, a 'Mayor's Hat' for Mo Brady, the city's new lady mayor and 'A Memory Hat', commissioned by young Tommy Butler, to celebrate his grandmother Lily's one-hundredth birthday. This is a tale about wonderful hats, but also about the people who buy them too - and their remarkable stories.
According to Luke by Gerard Stembridge
Large Format Paperback; 14 Euro / 18 USD / 10 UK; 226 pages [Add To Basket]
At thirty, Luke Reid seems to have an enviable life. He is a child of the leafy suburbs, attractive - in an understated way, tolerant and erudite, socially assured, professionally successful, romantically settled. In short, a textbook example of upper middle class contentment. But in his thirty-first year, Luke feels a strange new emotion - shame - when his father, Frank, a leading barrister, is implicated in decades of political sleaze. Unlike his mother, older sister and teenage brother, who try to ignore the whole sordid business, and unlike his younger sister, made helpless by the thought that her Daddy could do wrong, Luke decides to tackle the cancer of corruption head-on. He becomes a self-appointed campaigner for restorative justice, trying to make good the damage his father has done. His actions are unpredictable, shocking and life-altering - not just for himself, but for all those close to him. According to Luke is a scintillating novel that gets under the skin of contemporary Ireland, a darkly comic moral tale, sizzling with ironic implications, about the abuse of privilege and the folly of human nature.
God: A User’s Manual by Sean Moncrieff
Trade Paperback; 13 Euro / 17 USD / 8.50 UK; 384 pages [Add To Basket]
Jesus spent decades in India. Ethiopians, not Jews, are the real chosen people. A religion in Iran predicted the Virgin Birth, hundreds of years before Christ. Abraham was an Iraqi. Lenin was a Saint. Worms have souls. There’s no such thing as the Holy Trinity. All religions are the same. These are not conspiracy theories – but the genuine beliefs of the some of the world’s major religions. In God: A User's Guide, broadcaster Sean Moncrieff takes us through the history and development of the twenty largest religions in the world – in the process demonstrating that the truth is far more compelling than the fictional accounts. In the name of religion, millions have been killed, and millions have been saved. Political dynasties have been built on the back of religious belief, or been destroyed because of them. The history of religion is one of tyranny, betrayal, sacrifice, generosity and faith: where the same ‘facts’ have often brought believers to dramatically different conclusions. From religions which have a multiplicity of Gods, to religions which have no God at all, God: A User's Guide demonstrates how the vast majority of the world’s religions did not develop in isolation, but were influenced by already existing belief systems. We have far more in common than you might think.
Deadlines and Dickheads by Anne Gildea
Large Format Paperback; 13 Euro / 16 USD / 9 UK; 221 pages [Add To Basket]
For freelance journalist Mary McNice, life is like the froth on a cappuccino - no substance. She's tired of faking 'attitude' for her weekly column, of trying to keep up with what's Hot and what's Not, which colour is this week's new black. Even her lover, the hunky Rory, has another lover on the side. There's more to life than this, isn't there?
Gregory Carr, Independent Bookseller
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