Cereus Blooms at Night by Shani Mootoo (Granta, £6.99 in UK)ON a tiny Caribbean island, the air thick with the scent of flowers and the drone of insects, a demented elderly woman is brought…Sat Jun 26 1999 - 01:00
Twelve Gothic Tales, edited by Richard Dalby (Oxford, £5.99 in UK)Haunted castles, dark passageways, witches, ghouls and black cats galore; they're all here, and Richard Dalby treads a cautious…Sat Jun 19 1999 - 01:00
Mary Magdalen, by Susan Haskins (HarperCollins, £12.99 in UK)Mary Magdalen as a more appropriate role model for contemporary women than the Virgin of the same name? It sounds like one of…Sat Jun 12 1999 - 01:00
Pig Earth, by John Berger (Bloomsbury, £6.99 in UK)The out-there, off-centre tone of this book seems quite extraordinary until you remember that its author, having won what was…Sat Jun 12 1999 - 01:00
Various artists: Simply the Best Night at the Opera (Erato)The cover of this 2-CD compilation is an exercise in diplomacy. "Alagna," it goes, "Bartoli, Carreras, Cura, Gheorghiu..Fri Jun 11 1999 - 01:00
You're not singing any more . . .Ask any soccer fan what was on his or her mind in the first week of June last year, and it's most unlikely that they will reply…Sat May 22 1999 - 01:00
Tara Road, by Maeve Binchy (Orion, £6.99 in UK)RIA lives in a rambling, comfortable Victorian pile in a salubrious Dublin suburb, Marilyn in a spacious modern house in New …Sat May 15 1999 - 01:00
Mary Robinson: the Authorised Biography by Olivia O'Leary and Helen Burke (Sceptre/Lir, £7.99 in UK)Given the pedigree of its authors in, respectively, hard-edged current affairs journalism and academe, there are some surprisingly…Sat May 08 1999 - 01:00
The Shadow Player, by Rose Doyle (Town House, £6.99)When a woman with two children turns up on your doorstep on the day after New Year's and tells you that a) the father of your…Sat May 01 1999 - 01:00
If she finds it, she plays itOutside the window of the cafe on Liverpool's Albert Dock, fierce grey winds sweep the surface off the water and fling it in …Sat May 01 1999 - 01:00
A Name for Himself, by Catherine Dunne (Vintage, £5.99 in UK)Catherine Dunne's second novel gives a voice - and a powerful, articulate voice at that - to the sort of contemporary characters…Sat May 01 1999 - 01:00
Charpentier: Divertissements/Airs et Concerts (Erato)You could argue that they're not strictly ballroom in the opera sense, but there's no doubt that these charming little songs …Sat Apr 24 1999 - 01:00
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (Pan, £5.99 in UK)In April 1992 Chris McCandless hitch-hiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wildernessSat Apr 24 1999 - 01:00
Every Time We Say Goodbye, by Anna Blundy (Arrow, £6.99 in UK)The myth of the war correspondent - insouciant, untouchable, stylishly got up in the latest flak jacket chic - has been one of…Sat Apr 17 1999 - 01:00
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, by Louis de Bernieres (Vintage, £5.99 in UK)Set on the apparently idyllic Greek island of Cephallonia, Captain Corelli's Mandolin has been a permanent fixture on the bestseller…Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:00
Head on a platter`It's like dying and going to heaven: it's just divine singing. You wait all your life to be able to sing that kind of musicSat Apr 10 1999 - 01:00
Ottoman exploitsBaffled by the Balkans? You could, in an effort to seek partial enlightenment, do worse than plunge into Jason Goodwin's impressionistic…Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:00
Magnum: 50 years at the frontline of history, by Russell Miller (Pimlico, £12.50 in UK)If every picture tells a story, then Magnum's magnificent photographs have been telling the story of our century since the agency…Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:00
Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, by Kary Mullis (Bloomsbury, £12.99 in UK)Kary Mullis is a Renaissance man for the new millennium; a brilliant chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993 for his …Sat Apr 03 1999 - 01:00
Creating momentum`Often, as I struggled with obstacles of every kind opposed to my works - often, as my physical and mental powers sank and I …Sat Apr 03 1999 - 01:00
Traditional African and Oriental Music, by Otto Karolyi (Penguin, £7.99 in UK)The growing popularity of world music, and the enormous choice now available under that heading in record shops, has not, alas…Sat Apr 03 1999 - 01:00
Beloved, by Toni Morrison (Vintage, £6.99 in UK)Trailers for the forthcoming feature film starring Oprah Winfrey suggest that Hollywood's Beloved will be a considerably glossier…Sat Apr 03 1999 - 01:00
The city's rural gloriesThe Unofficial Country- side, by Richard Mabey (Pimlico, £10.99 in UK)Sat Mar 27 1999 - 00:00
All That She Wants, by Maeve Haran (Warner, £5.99 in UK)Francesca Tyler is beautiful, flame-haired and the editor of a local newspaperSat Mar 27 1999 - 00:00
Conjurers and cold frontsSingle and Single, by John le Carre, read by the author (Hodder Headline, 4 tapes, 6 hrs, £12.99 in UK)Sat Mar 20 1999 - 00:00
Evergreen Stories, selected by Hilary Laurie (Phoenix, £3.99 in UK)The centrepiece of a mammoth series of budget collections, this modest-looking little volume contains some eighteen classic stories…Sat Mar 06 1999 - 00:00
Real Men don't sing tenorThomas Hampson and Samuel Ramey: "No Tenors Allowed" (Teldec)Fri Mar 05 1999 - 00:00
A singular Strether comes to EuropeThe year is 2099. The world political scene is dominated by the Union - formerly known as the EU - which comprises 42 nations…Fri Mar 05 1999 - 00:00
Music for Middlebrows, by Des Keogh (Ashfield Press, £9.99)Des Keogh's genial presence has ensured that a radio show which began as a thirteen-week series in 1968 has been a permanent …Sat Feb 06 1999 - 00:00
The Acid House, by Irvine Welsh (Vintage, £6.99 in UK)The inevitable failure of the misguided film of the same name, which sought to weave four of these weird, wild stories into a…Sat Feb 06 1999 - 00:00
1001 Answers to Correspondents, edited by Andy Simpson and James Black (Robinson, £6.99 in UK)This book bills itself as "the answer to all the questions you never knew you wanted to ask" - and sure enough, unless you're…Sat Feb 06 1999 - 00:00
The Guardian Year '98, edited by John Ezard (Fourth Estate, £12.99 in UK)Fifteen quid - which it will be, more or less, by the time it gets into Irish bookshops - may seem like a lot to fork out for…Sat Jan 30 1999 - 00:00
The Salesman, by Joseph O'Connor (Vintage, £5.99 in UK)This surprisingly subdued novel follows the fortunes of a 49-year-old purveyor of satellite dishes, Billy Sweeney, whose daughter…Sat Jan 30 1999 - 00:00
The Vintage Book of Office Life, edited by Jeremy Lewis (Vintage, £7.99 in UK)Is nothing safe from the anthologiser's beady eye? Apparently not, for Jeremy Lewis has assembled a collection of your worst …Sat Jan 30 1999 - 00:00
Mrs Einstein, by Anna McGrail (Anchor, £6.99 in UK)What an inspired idea for a story - to trace the life of the illegitimate daughter who was given away in 1902 by the young Einstein…Sat Jan 23 1999 - 00:00
Requiem for a Family Business, by Jonathan Guinness (Pan, £7.99 in UK)The gospel according to Guinness? Well, not quite; Jonathan Guinness worked for Reuters news agency for a few years, and he not…Sat Jan 23 1999 - 00:00
The ultimate man of lettersThis comprehensive biography of the ultimate man of letters - novelist, playwright, screenwriter, biographer, essayist and critic…Sat Jan 23 1999 - 00:00
Maid of the Mist, by Colin Bateman (HarperCollins, 10.99 in UK)The film of his first novel, Divorcing Jack, will have brought this Northern thriller writer to the attention of a wider audience…Sat Jan 23 1999 - 00:00
The Thieves' Opera, by Lucy Moore (Penguin, £7.99 in UK)Anyone who hankers after the good old days should peruse these pages, crammed as they are with the noises, smells and skullduggery…Sat Jan 23 1999 - 00:00
Love and Music: The Glorious History of the Dublin Grand Opera Society 1941-1998, by Gus Smith (Atlantic Publishers, £10.95)It was founded as the result of a 1941 newspaper advertisement; it now stands on the threshold of a brave and, with the demise…Sat Jan 23 1999 - 00:00
Sounds Good: 101 Poems to be Heard, edited with an introduction by Christopher Reid (Faber & Faber, £7.99 in UK)All together, now: "O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,/ So haggard and so woe-be-gone?" Or here's another: "But at my back …Sat Jan 16 1999 - 00:00
Joe Gould's Secret, by Joseph Mitchell (Vintage, £6.99 in UK)The English pride themselves on the quality of their eccentrics, but New York can throw up arcane individuals of a high order…Sat Jan 16 1999 - 00:00
Open to whatever breeze there isThe sights, sounds and extraordinary colours of a year in the life of the Mayo coast are triumphantly captured in this magical…Sat Jan 16 1999 - 00:00
A Perfect Wife, by Christina Odone (Phoenix, £6.99 in UK)When Michael is, after years of grafting, plotting and scheming, finally appointed editor of a national newspaper, his clever…Sat Jan 16 1999 - 00:00
The Daily Telegraph Third Book of Obituaries: Entertainers, edited by Hugh Massingberd (Pan, £6.99 in UK)Hugh Massingberd made obituaries into oddities during his decade as obituaries editor at the Daily Telegraph, and this selection…Sat Jan 16 1999 - 00:00
Good Enough To Eat: How We Shop, What We Eat, by Maureen Tatlow (Gill & Macmillan, no price given)Maureen Tatlow is a mine of information concerning BSE, antibiotics in pork, genetic modification and other trendy food topics…Sat Jan 09 1999 - 00:00
After the feast is overIf you have eaten too much during the festive season, fear not, for this witty anthology will allow you to taste of all manner…Sat Jan 09 1999 - 00:00
Sex Lives of the Great Artists, and Sex Lives of the Great Composers, by Nigel Cawthorne (Prion, £6.99 each in UK)What made Picasso insatiable? Why did Van Gogh present his severed ear to a prostitute? What did Chopin mean when he referred…Sat Jan 09 1999 - 00:00
Continuing our critics' fast-forward through the year aheadDistinguished mezzo-soprano Ann Murray visits the NCH on January 15th on a rare visit here to sing Berlioz's Les Nuits d'Ete (…Sat Jan 02 1999 - 00:00
