Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 419
Irish Fiction
Mutiny on the Bounty by John Boyne
Large Format Trade Paperback; 14 Euro / 22 USD / 11 UK; 500 pages
This was set in December 23, 1787, Deptford on the south bank of the river Thames. A 15-year-old boy, Billy, has got into trouble with the police on one too many occasions and is about to be sent to prison when an offer is put to him - a ship has been refitted over the last few months and is about to set sail with an important mission. The boy who was expected to serve as the captain's personal valet has been struck down with an illness and a replacement must be found immediately. The deal is struck and he finds himself onboard, meeting the captain, just as the ship sets sail. The ship is HMS Bounty, the captain is William Bligh, and their destination is Tahiti.
The Reapers by John Connolly
Large Format Trade Paperback; 14 Euro / 22 USD / 11 UK; 390 pages [Add To Basket]
They are the Reapers, the elite among killers. Men so terrifying that their names are mentioned only in whispers. The assassin Louis is one of them. But now Louis, and his partner, Angel, are themselves targets. And there is no shortage of suspects. A wealthy recluse sends them north to a town that no longer exists on a map. A town ruled by a man with very personal reasons for wanting Louis's blood spilt. There they find themselves trapped, isolated, and at the mercy of a killer feared above all others: the assassin of assassins, Bliss. Thanks to former detective Charlie Parker, help is on its way. But can Angel and Louis stay alive long enough for it to reach them?
If Not Now … by Denyse Devlin
Large Format Trade Paperback; 14 Euro / 22 USD / 11 UK; 432 pages
Just when she has resigned herself to being alone long-term, Marina Ffrench, a widow in her forties, meets a man and falls in love all over again. A midlife relationship, she thinks, will be straightforward - kids reared, careers established, mortgages almost paid off ...However, midlife passion carries excess baggage. Luke, her man, may have a gorgeous villa on the Italian Lakes, but he also has a pious and eccentric Irish mammy, an Italian ex-lover who is as invasive as dry rot, and a son embroiled in a suspect engagement. And Marina has to admit that her own life is just as complicated - and getting more so by the day, given the number of stray souls and ghosts from the past that are turning up in her Cork home. Gradually, she and Luke come to see that love second time around is hard work. But in their efforts to find a happy ending for everyone, unwittingly they are creating a disaster that may destroy their shared future and the happiness of both families...
Going It Alone by Clare Dowling
Large Format Trade Paperbackc; 13 Euro / 20 USD / 10 UK; 310 pages [Add To Basket]
A hilarious and romantic novel about marriage, motherhood and mid-life crises. Millies biological clock has been ticking for some time, and on the eve of her fortieth birthday the alarm bell starts ringing. She needs to have a baby and fast, but after months of fruitless trying, her husband Andrew is feeling like a walking sperm bank and their marriage is in crisis. Matters come to a head when Andrews job relocates to London and Millie decides that if he wont stick around to get her pregnant, then shell do it without him. Setting her sights on Spain, Millie embarks on a voyage of discovery
The Miracle of Grace by Kate Kerrigan
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 7 UK; 275 pages
Grace's mother Eileen is a great list maker, so when Grace walks into Eileen's kitchen to drop off a postal package and sees her garish 'To Do' pad on the counter, she thinks nothing of it, until she sneaks a look. There, at No 8, ranked in importance well below bread, telephone bill and bins is 'Tell G I have ovarian cancer, probably terminal'. Grace goes into shock, primarily at the thought that her mother is dying, but also at the fact that her mother simply couldn't tell her to her face. Is their relationship really so bad? Eileen has been brought up in rural Ireland in the 1950s, in thrall to the rules of her community - church first, then husband, then children. So she's had little time for herself and even now finds it impossible to put her own problems and desires to the fore. It is only when Grace confronts her, that she is able to go back over her past, to her own childhood, her early marriage, and the birth of her cherished only daughter to find memories of happiness and unbearable tragedy that have coloured her life forever. The Miracle of Grace is a poignant, but ultimately uplifting, novel that reveals a unique relationship between a mother and her daughter, and tells of a woman whose life has been restricted by the mores of duty, honour, and religion but who yearns for love.
None of My Affair by Fiona O’Brien
Large Format Paperback; 13 Euro / 20 USD / 19 UK; 438 pages [Add To Basket]
Beautiful, wealthy and glamorous -- Carrie, Jay and Olwen have it all. But beneath the surface, cracks are beginning to show...Carrie wrestles with the decision to finally divorce her philandering husband, Rob, who can play her like a cat does a mouse. But can she live without him? Jay is married to one of the country's richest men, but as she struggles to hold on she discovers that maybe she's made the biggest mistake of all! Olwen is torn between her love for Rob, and the accompanying guilt -- but doesn't true love conquer all? When Carrie's supermodel daughter, Ali, chooses the glamorous yacht Excalibur to hold her glittering wedding, a tangled web of emotions and intrigue begins to unravel, threatening everything these women hold dear. From the fleshpots of Puerto Banus to the mansions of Marbella's Golden Mile, Carrie, Jay and Olwen are forced to discover -- when your world is about to be blown apart, the only person you can rely on is yourself.
Guarding Maggie by Ellen McCarthy
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 7 UK; 432 pages [Add To Basket]
All her life, people have looked after Maggie Breslin. She is happy enough with her quiet life in the heart of rural Donegal. But when a face from her past surfaces, disaster follows, and Maggie is left alone to pick up the pieces. Who would want to harm Maggie and her family, here in the place she has known since she was a child? Whom can she trust? As tragedy follows tragedy, she doesn t know where to turn. For the first time, Maggie must take control of her own destiny and find out who her tormentor is before it's too late.
The Summer of Secrets by Martina Reilly
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 7 UK; 408 pages [Add To Basket]
Hope Gleeson wants to go travelling, to escape her boring London life and plan a happier future. But the unthinkable happens - the plane taking her to sunnier climes experiences technical problems and crash lands. Hope is one of only seventeen people to survive, saved from death by the man sitting next to her. Hope wakes up in hospital with her best friends Adam and Julie at her side. They are taking her home to Ireland, they tell her, to recuperate. But home is the last place Hope wants to go - she has too many secrets to hide...The Summer of Secrets is the brilliant new novel from the wonderful Martina Reilly. Combining gentle humour with darker, real-life issues, this is fiction you won't want to put down.
Tara’s Destiny by Geraldine O’Neill
Paperback; 9 Euro / 13 USD / 6 UK; 578 pages [Add To Basket]
It's not easy being a businesswoman in 1960s Manchester, but Tara Fitzgerald has done very well for herself. She runs her own hotel and a boarding house and has been offered an interesting investment opportunity. But Tara can't let go of Ballygrace Manor back in Ireland, her late husband's home and the scene of much tragedy and happiness in her life. Meanwhile, her half-sister Angela has met the man of her dreams. But small minds and loose talk endanger her happiness. And Bridget, Tara's oldest friend, seems to have triumphed over her difficult childhood. But a face from the past threatens her hard-won security. Will Angela's love win out? Will Bridget keep her family together? And can Tara move on from her tragic past? Just what is Tara's Destiny?
The Magician by Michael Scott
Large Format Paperback; 13 Euro / 20 USD / 19 UK; 464 pages [Add To Basket]
In California: In the hands of Dr. John Dee and the Dark Elders, the book of Abraham the Mage could mean the destruction of the world as we know it. The most powerful book of all time, it holds the secret to eternal life. A secret more dangerous than any one man should ever hold. And Dee is two pages away from the knowledge that would bring the Dark Elders into ultimate power. His only obstacle? Josh and Sophie Newman - who are 8,000 miles away, in Paris: After fleeing Ojai, Nicholas, Sophie, Josh, and Scatty emerge in Paris. The City of Lights. Home for Nicholas Flamel. Only this homecoming is anything but sweet. Perenell is still locked up back in Alcatraz and Paris is burning - with it, the last hopes for the human race. Nicollo Machiavelli, immortal author and celebrated art collector, is working for Dee. He's after them, and time is running out for Nicholas and Perenell. Every day spent without the book they age one year - their magic becomes weaker and their bodies, more frail. For Flamel the Prophesy is becoming more and more clear. It's time for Sophie to learn the second elemental magic. Fire Magic. And there's only one man who can teach it to her. Flamel's old student The Comte de Saint Germain--alchemist, magician, and rock star. Josh and Sophie Newman are the world's only hope. If they don't turn on each other first. Second book in the series.
The Alchemyst by Michael Scott
Paperback; 7 Euro / 10 USD / 5 UK; 360 pages [Add To Basket]
He holds the secret that can end the world. The truth: Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on 28 September 1330. Nearly seven hundred years later, he is acknowledged as the greatest Alchemyst of his day. It is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life. The records show that he died in 1418. But his tomb is empty. The legend: Nicholas Flamel lives. But only because he has been making the elixir of life for centuries. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the powerful book he protects - the Book of Abraham the Mage. In the wrong hands, it will destry the world. That's exactly what Dr John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won't know what happening until it's too late. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it. Sometimes legends are true. And Sophie and Josh Newman are about to find themselves in the middle of the greatest legend of all time. First book in brilliant new series (Ireland’s answer to the question: Is there life after Harry Potter? The answer is: Yes!)
Death’s Shadow by Darren Shan
Large Format Paperback; 12 Euro / 16 USD / 8 UK; 238 pages [Add To Basket]
Fresh hell from the Demonata - you can't cheat death..."I'm a human sponge -- I soak up memories. I feel like a thief, stealing secrets with an innocent touch. I don't like this gift. It's intrusive and sneaky. I think it's harmless, but I can't be sure. If knowledge is power, why do I feel so alone!?" The apocalypse came and the world burned. But it wasn't the end, and out of the destruction, new life has emerged. Bec is back to face the Demonata. After centuries of imprisonment, she's more powerful than ever, but the demons no longer stand alone. Something else has crawled out of the darkness with her. Lord Loss is no longer humanity's greatest threat!
Cheating at Canasta by William Trevor
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 7 UK; 230 pages [Add To Basket]
No matter what,' Julia had said, aware then of what was coming, 'let's always play cards.' And they did; for even with her memory gone, a little more of it each day - her children taken, her house, her flowerbeds, belongings, clothes - their games in the communal drawing room were a reality her affliction allowed. A husband sits in Harry's Bar in Venice, thinking of his wife - lost to him now - whose plea has brought him back to one of their favourite haunts. On another table, a young couple quarrel. Cheating at Canasta is the title story of William Trevor's new collection, his first since the highly acclaimed A Bit on the Side (2004), and its themes of missed opportunities, the inevitability of change and the powerful but fragmentary quality of our memories are entirely characteristic of his unparalleled oeuvre.
Redemption Falls by Joseph O’Connor
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 7 UK; 456 pages [Add To Basket]
Its the year 1865 and 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'Keeffe, 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 bestselling "Star of the Sea".
Walking the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 7 UK; 182 pages [Add To Basket]
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. 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.
Antarctica by Claire Keegan
Paperback; 10 Euro . 14 USD / 7 UK; 209 pages [Add To Basket]
Claire Keegan's debut collection of short stories, Antartica is a varied, often challenging, series of reflections on the drama, and violence, of everyday lives: the love affairs which tempt women, and men, to leave their marriages, the cruel rivalry between sisters, the common misery between men and women, the uncanny effects of requited love. Like her narrative voices, Keegan's themes are diverse, distinctive. "Every time the happily married woman went away," she writes, at the beginning of the eponymous "Antartica", "she wondered how it would feel to sleep with another man." Taking her chance between danger and eroticism, she finds out. Does the au pair want to kill the baby? Is the question which drives "Where the Water's Deepest", while "Men and Women" gives voice to the desperation of being the "useful" child to a father-tyrant: men "do nothing" in a world in which mother and daughter do nothing but work. One of the most disturbing stories in the collection is "A Scent of Winter", a tale of "rape" and revenge, of keeping a white wife silent and waiting for a black man to "heal". That (grotesque) hint is typical of how these stories work, and of the strange, sometimes ruthless, world onto which they open.
Please note: Prices were correct at time of original posting but are subject to subsequent change without notice.
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