An Irishwoman's DiaryDURING THE past 400 years the plays of William Shakespeare have been performed all over the world, in productions ranging from…Tue May 15 2012 - 01:00
Antigone in AfghanistanFICTION: A striking new novel draws inspiration from classical literature to paint a vivid portrait of modern warSat May 12 2012 - 01:00
Browser nonfictionThe Time Has Come: Ger McDonnell – His Life and Death on K2, Carole King’s A Natural Woman: A Memoir, Wilkie CollinsSat May 12 2012 - 01:00
Memoir of a life unlivedBiography and fiction are beautifully balanced in Angharad Price’s gently re-imagined family memoir The Life of Rebecca Jones…Sat May 05 2012 - 01:00
Take-offIT HAD TO HAPPEN. After years of being bullied by airlines, enduring their increasingly strident rules and regulations, not forgetting…Sat May 05 2012 - 01:00
The giants whose shoulders art stands onART HISTORY: The Italian Renaissance is the template against which European art – and, in the case of Leonardo and Michelangelo…Sat May 05 2012 - 01:00
The career that didn't go like clockworkAnthony Burgess was a gifted and prodigious writer of more than 50 books, along with countless articles and criticisms – but …Mon Apr 23 2012 - 01:00
A 'Ulysses' for WarsawFICTION: This year is the centenary of the death of the Polish writer Boleslaw Prus, whose novel ‘The Doll’ stands among world…Sat Apr 21 2012 - 01:00
Why Dracula is the original - and best - of the speciesTHE BOOK: NO MONSTER could hope to compete with the sinister elegance of the vampire: the black cloak, the evening dress, the…Wed Apr 18 2012 - 01:00
From the classics to commoditiesART HISTORY: The Fusion of Neo-Classical Principles Edited by Lynda Mulvin Wordwell, 202pp. €35Sat Apr 14 2012 - 01:00
Ten shortlisted for IMPAC literary awardAT FIRST glance Jon McGregor and Willy Vlautin stand out from the 10 shortlisted for this year’s International IMPAC Dublin Literary…Thu Apr 12 2012 - 01:00
A Southern tragedy that's right on the markFICTION : The Cove, by Ron Rush, Canongate, 255pp. £11.99Sat Apr 07 2012 - 01:00
Not such a miraculous machineFICTION: The Chemistry of Tears By Peter Carey, Faber and Faber, 271pp. £17.99Sat Mar 31 2012 - 01:00
Illuminating tales of Harry Clarke's magical artGLOBALLY ACCLAIMED illustrator PJ Lynch accurately summed up the art of Harry Clarke when he said that none of his pictures or…Mon Mar 26 2012 - 01:00
Iggy, the Kid and the grey areaLost Memory of Skin By Russell Banks Clerkenwell Press, 416pp. £12.99Sat Mar 17 2012 - 00:00
A well-deserved retirement for Kauto Star could only improve racing's imageOPINION: LATER TODAY we could all be celebrating a fairytale moment as the great chaser Kauto Star triumphs at Cheltenham, taking…Fri Mar 16 2012 - 00:00
A small world in rag orderFICTION: A Small Circus , By Hans Fallada, translated by Michael Hofmann, Penguin Classics, 572pp. £20Sat Mar 03 2012 - 00:00
A low-key observer who doesn't give too much awayFICTION: The Detou r By Gerbrand Bakker, translated by David Colmer Harvill Secker, 230pp. £12.99Sat Feb 25 2012 - 00:00
Funny from a distanceSHORT STORIES: This Isn’t the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You By Jon McGregor Bloomsbury, 262pp. £14.99Sat Feb 18 2012 - 00:00
An Irishwoman's DiaryHE BROKE every literary rule and freely indulged in sentimentality, sensationalism, melodrama, coincidence and brazen polemic…Tue Feb 07 2012 - 00:00
'We are heading for a great catastrophe'LETTERS: Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, Translated and edited by Michael Hofmann, Granta, 552pp. £25Sat Feb 04 2012 - 00:00
An Irishwoman's DiaryMORE THAN 220 years have passed since his tragic early death at the age of 35 in 1791 and the question of who or what killed …Mon Jan 23 2012 - 00:00
Dignified and intelligent, eloquent and restrainedMEMOIR: EILEEN BATTERSBY reviews The Mirador By Élisabeth Gille, translated by Marina Harss NYRB Classics, 239pp, £8.99Sat Jan 07 2012 - 00:00
'Pure' delight for Miller as Costa triumph makes up for Booker disappointmentSMILES OF satisfaction must have greeted the announcement of the five category winners of the 2011 Costa Book awardsWed Jan 04 2012 - 00:00
My family, my friendIN MEMORY OF CAROLINE WALSH: YOU ALWAYS FEAR for your family and friendsSat Dec 24 2011 - 00:00
Winter of discontent darkens solsticeNO SNOW, not even a hint of frost and the darkness seemed closer to night than early morningThu Dec 22 2011 - 00:00
Mon Dieu! It's a supermarket romance that's unputdownableFICTION: Delicacy By David Foenkinos, translated by Bruce Benderson Bloomsbury, 250pp. £7.99Sat Dec 10 2011 - 00:00
An Irishwoman's DiaryHOLLY WREATHS, the smell of pine, mulled wine and cinnamon, the feasts of eating, snow (if we’re lucky), Christmas comes complete…Tue Dec 06 2011 - 00:00
A love story with a fist at its centreFICTION: Purgatory By Tomás Eloy Martínez, translated by Frank Wynne Bloomsbury, 273pp. £16.99Sat Dec 03 2011 - 00:00
Don DeLillo: watching the American way of lifeSHORT STORIES: The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories , By Don DeLillo, Picador, 211pp. £16.99Sat Nov 26 2011 - 00:00
Rediscovered artist proves a hit 100 years on as gallery extends exhibitionRECESSIONARY TIMES are not ideal for selling art yet such is the interest in a recently rediscovered Irish artist that a Dublin…Mon Nov 21 2011 - 00:00
Paperbacks: our picks of the latest releasesThe Virgin Suicides, Tintin: Hergé His Creation, Women Mean Business: One Woman’s Journey into Entrepreneurship, Something Was There . . . : Asham Award-Winning Ghost Stories, The Last Man on the Mountain: The Death of an American Adventurer on K2Sat Nov 19 2011 - 00:00
Novel truths in the fictional worldIT COMES AS a bit of surprise, although it shouldn’tSat Nov 12 2011 - 00:00
An extraordinary debut on the Impac listFICTION: The Vintage and the Gleaning By Jeremy Chambers MacLehose Press, 249pp. £10.99Sat Nov 12 2011 - 00:00
Of sprites and goblinsIT IS NOT that difficult to describe. It is an unsettling feeling, one that might even approach the state of fearMon Oct 31 2011 - 00:00
Spine of steelFICTION: The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am , By Kjersti A Skomsvold, translated by Kerri A Pierce Dalkey Archive Press, 147pp…Sat Oct 29 2011 - 01:00
'I lost everything and then, got it back'WINNING The Man Booker Prize is not that importantWed Oct 19 2011 - 01:00
An Irishwoman's DiaryON October 22nd 1811, a group of gypsies camped outside the small Hungarian village of Raiding near the Esterhazy estate, heard…Tue Oct 18 2011 - 01:00
Barnes finally brings home the BookerIt was fourth time lucky for Britain’s Julian Barnes the favourite as he won the Man Booker Prize with The Sense of an Ending…Tue Oct 18 2011 - 01:00
A feel for the menace of a world in overdriveSHORT STORIES: The Outlaw Album By Daniel Woodrell, Sceptre, 167pp. £16.99Sat Oct 08 2011 - 01:00
O'Brien triumphs: Irish winner of short story prizeAN IRISH writer has finally won Ireland’s major international short story competitionMon Sept 19 2011 - 01:00
Flashes of brilliance in an up-and-down Booker hopefulFICTION: Pigeon English , By Stephen Kelman, Bloomsbury, 263pp. £12.99Sat Sept 10 2011 - 01:00
Barnes heads Man Booker shortlist as Barry left outNOTHING IN life is certain, not even Alan Hollinghurst’s apparently copperfastened claim to this year’s Man Booker PrizeWed Sept 07 2011 - 01:00
Curiosity killed the cat, but not MichaelFICTION: The Cat’s Table By Michael Ondaatje Cape, 286pp. £16.99Sat Aug 20 2011 - 01:00
An all too human story of great unrestFICTION: The Sense of an Ending By Julian Barnes, Cape, 150pp. £12.99Sat Aug 13 2011 - 01:00
The fine, frayed threads of language and memoryFICTION: New Finnish Grammar By Diego Marani Translated by Judith Landry Dedalus, 187pp, £9.99Sat Aug 06 2011 - 01:00
An Irishwoman's DiaryIT WAS not the usual gig, but it was a gig, albeit one featuring one of the finest – and probably most loved – violin virtuosos…Mon Aug 01 2011 - 01:00
Longlisted for Booker, Barry hopes it is third time luckyWhile the Irish writer may secure shortlisting for the third time, Alan Hollinghurst is expected to win again with his elegant…Wed Jul 27 2011 - 01:00
'I can no longer decide what is invented and what is real'In his past two novels, Sebastian Barry is working out two strands of stories that come from the two sides of his familySat Jul 23 2011 - 01:00
