Book Review: Ordinary Human Failings – Megan Nolan
"In creating a patchwork of despairing characters, Nolan successfully entrances her reader; all through her sharp observations of ordinary human failings." - Aisling Arundel
Book Review: The Hour After Happy Hour – Mary O’Donoghue
For those of us who have emigrated, the concept of home is fraught with questions, What makes us leave? What brings us back? What ties us to a place? What…
Book Review: Termush – Sven Holm
"If there is anything to be said for the trend of rescuing lost ‘classics’, it is that occasionally a book is unearthed whose uncommon prescience was unknowable in its own…
Book Review: Wish I Was Here – John Harrison
"The fragmentary nature of Wish I Was Here means that it offers the greatest rewards to those who know Harrison well and share this hope. The book will, however, enrich…
Book Review: The Happy Couple – Naoise Dolan
"Throughout the novel, Dolan offers no damning judgement or moral equivocations. Things for her just ‘are’, and there’s a weird kind of comfort in this for the reader." - Holly…
Book Review: August Blue – Deborah Levy
"August Blue is a touching tale of the beauty in mistakes and their power to help one carve their own path in life" - Ciara Berkeley
Book Review: Youth – Kevin Curran
"With a distinct and original perspective on modern Irish society, Youth reaffirms its author as a significant and powerful voice." - Andrew Lambert
Book Review: Tomás Nevinson – Javier Marías
"Plot has never been the point for Marías. In his past work, which includes other spy novels, it has functioned as a kind of bobbin from which to draw the…
Book Review: Biography of X – Catherine Lacey
"X marks Lacey out as one of the most intriguing novelists working today." - Eve Hawksworth
Book Review: Slant – Katherine O’Donnell
"A powerful story, laced with passion, soul, infatuation, and love." - Aisling Arundel
Book Review: Close to Home – Michael Magee
"Close to Home is a pure and dignified novel about negotiating that ‘where the fuck are we’ feeling – from leaving that couch at that after’s, to telling someone you…
Book Review: We The Parasites – A.V. Marraccini
"In We The Parasites, A.V. Marraccini offers us the critic-as-parasite, a metaphor which becomes the generative starting point for an essay that encounters (among others) Homer, John Updike, Cy Twombly…"…
Book Review: Cuddy – Benjamin Myers
"And Cuddy will stand as such an edifice: imposing if also forbidding, and of a construction so vast and variegated that even the sceptic will find sanctuary in its vaults;…
Book Review: Hit Parade of Tears – Izumi Suzuki
"Suzuki’s work exercises considerable influence on contemporary Japanese writers, particularly Sayaka Murata. And when Suzuki forgets the mechanics of intergalactic world-building and simply radiates an uncanny vibe, it’s easy to…
Book Review: Nothing Special – Nicole Flattery
“In Nothing Special Flattery consistently deals with a world of overlapping contradiction between imagination and reality.” - Holly Gash
Book Review: Running feet, sharp noses – PVA Books
"Similarly, Running feet, sharp noses unveils a collection of chambers, with each writer’s cosmos featuring the animals in their lives; 'a source of magic." - Aisling Arundel
Book Review: Brutes – Dizz Tate
"This is not a wholesome coming of age tale, and the backdrop for Brutes is not a wholesome coming of age town." - Holly Gash
Book Review: My Father’s House – Joseph O’Connor
"With his first novel in four years, Joseph O’Connor returns with a powerful tale of resistance in My Father’s House." - Andrew Lambert