The language of ragePower shifts, the politics of sexuality, trust and, above all, rage - the rage of the disempowered - are the dynamics at work…Sat May 08 1999 - 01:00
Spring says the UN needs to be reformed immediatelyThe United Nations "is desperately in need of reform, particularly at Security Council level", Mr Dick Spring TD has said.Tue May 04 1999 - 01:00
Crowe's Requiem, by Mike McCormack (Vintage, £5.99 in UK)This well-imagined first novel had the difficult task of following McCormack's brilliant, uniquely original first collection …Sat May 01 1999 - 01:00
Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes (Faber, £7.99 in UK)The story of Ted Hughes must be one of the saddest in literatureSat Apr 24 1999 - 01:00
Predictable prophecyOne of the most enduring debates in literature is that of the serious versus the goodSat Apr 24 1999 - 01:00
Bear and His Daughter, by Robert Stone (Picador, £6.99 in UK)These seven stories spanning 30 years from the post-Hemingway New York writer Robert Stone are not only very good, they offer…Sat Apr 17 1999 - 01:00
Divine music in a human worldFor a novelist rooted so firmly in the 19th-century European tradition, the Indian writer Vikram Seth is a confirmed risk-taker…Sat Apr 17 1999 - 01:00
An Irishman's DiaryLong before he was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize for Literature in mid-career at the ridiculously early age of 56 - although there…Tue Apr 13 1999 - 01:00
The Lone Woman, by Bernardo Atxaga (Harvill, £8.99 in UK)Like this exciting Basque writer's previous novel The Lone Man, this much shorter book also concerns a central character stalked…Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:00
Paradise, by Toni Morrison (Vintage, £6.99 in UK)Life and its various sub-plots has driven a group of women to seek sanctuary in a deserted former convent, originally built as…Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:00
Irishwoman's DiaryYOU wanted to live in the countryside because you had spent your childhood in the mountainsMon Apr 05 1999 - 01:00
The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty, by Sebastian Barry (Picador, £6.99 in UK)At a time when so much new Irish fiction has adopted a tone of aggressive comedy, Barry's gentle tale about one of life's innocents…Sat Apr 03 1999 - 01:00
Purple America, by Rick Moody (Flamingo, £7.99 in UK)Dexter "Hex" Raitliffe is a hapless 38-year-old freelance publicist with a serious speech impediment and a heavy drinking habit…Sat Apr 03 1999 - 01:00
America uncoveredBen Turnbull is retired and long-married to his former mistress Gloria, whom he now believes is waiting for his death and "the…Sat Apr 03 1999 - 01:00
Model Behaviour By Jay McInerney (Bloomsbury, £6.99 in UK)Set in New York, McInerney's spiritual homeland, this, his sixth novel, marks an obvious, too obvious, return to the world of…Sat Mar 27 1999 - 00:00
`Yerma' with puppetsA three-day workshop in puppeteering last December proved crucial to Galloglass Theatre Company's exciting production of Lorca…Sat Mar 13 1999 - 00:00
DeLillo's `Underworld' is favourite as shortlist for literary award is announcedUS Writer Don DeLillo has emerged as the favourite in the strong eight-book field competing for the fourth International IMPAC…Fri Mar 12 1999 - 00:00
Echo from the GulagOn his way home from war, the soldier in the title story of Andrey Platonov's The Return, translated by Robert and Elizabeth …Sat Mar 06 1999 - 00:00
Down among the deadMEET Victor; good looking, vain, disloyal, utterly vacuous, and stupid enough to think the PLO are a Seventies pop groupSat Feb 27 1999 - 00:00
An Irishwoman's DiaryNeither an archaeologist, nor a historian, nor a geographer, Tim Robinson has earned a position of unusual respect in Ireland…Mon Feb 22 1999 - 00:00
Burren acknowledged as memorial to bygone culturesInterpretative centre controversies aside, during the past 20 years the number of houses built on the Burren had increased by…Mon Feb 15 1999 - 00:00
The woman in the pictureSO many novelists have perpetrated smash-and-grab raids on the second World War that at this stage it seems unlikely anyone could…Sat Feb 13 1999 - 00:00
The Sandglass, by Ro mesh Gunesekera (Granta, £6.99 in UK)Possibly the best novel published in Europe last year, and certainly the one which should have won the Booker Prize, for which…Sat Feb 06 1999 - 00:00
Last things, first thingsAnn Lord is waiting for death; it is a long, slow and painful wait. She is dying of cancerSat Feb 06 1999 - 00:00
Time Will Darken It, by William Maxwell (Harvill, £6.99 in UK)Republished late last year to mark the fiftieth anniversary of its original publication in 1948, this small masterwork from a…Sat Feb 06 1999 - 00:00
Hardy soulsThis week, Storytellers theatre company brings Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge to the stage, in a production adapted…Sat Jan 30 1999 - 00:00
What he was doing hereA decade has passed since the death of Bruce Chatwin at the early age of forty-nineSat Jan 30 1999 - 00:00
Final work by poet Ted Hughes wins Whitbread Book of the Year in 2nd legprizeFew things could be as certain as the posthumous triumph of the poet Ted Hughes, who has won the 1998 Whitbread Book of the Year…Wed Jan 27 1999 - 00:00
Catching Shellfish between the Tides, by Rosalyn Chissick (Sceptre, £6.99 in UK)Few writers could hope to achieve the elusive, imaginative quality of this extraordinarily lyric, original novel which is all…Sat Jan 23 1999 - 00:00
The realm of brillianceVirginia Woolf's long battle with madness and despair provides the structure and inspiration for Michael Cunningham's outstanding…Sat Jan 16 1999 - 00:00
Underworld, by Don DeLillo (Picador, £10.00 in UK)Make no mistake about it - Don DeLillo proved himself to be one of the world's most exciting writers as long ago as the publication…Sat Jan 16 1999 - 00:00
Ted Hughes's last work dominates Whitbread prize category winnersWinners of the four categories in this year's Whitbread Book Awards were announced in London yesterdayThu Jan 14 1999 - 00:00
A versatile and prolific worker-writer, Moore was the personification of the professional novelistIf the true writer is an outsider, few have perfected this role as subtly as Brian Moore, whose finest work was always marked…Wed Jan 13 1999 - 00:00
Up in the Air and Down, by Patrick Healy (Pallas Press, £4.99)First published in 1985, this unusual debut novella is a sensitive return to the impressions and sensations of early childhood…Sat Jan 09 1999 - 00:00
Bech makes it to StockholmIt is just under a year since the publication of John Updike's Toward the End of Time, a performance which matches Roger's Version…Sat Jan 09 1999 - 00:00
Night Train, by Martin Amis (Vintage, £5.99 in UK)Few could dispute this comic satirist's flair and obvious linguistic virtuosity, yet his excursion into tough US police-speak…Sat Jan 02 1999 - 00:00
Elephant, by Raymond Carver (Harvill, £6.99 in UK).Raymond Carver created a literary speech uniquely his own, cryptic, confessional and laced with regretSat Jan 02 1999 - 00:00
The maker of an Australian GenesisPublished in 1981, some nine years before his death, this effortless memoir conveys much of the relaxed intensity of White the…Sat Jan 02 1999 - 00:00
Winter solstice at Newgrange continues to weave spellsWhether as pre-Christmas ritual or pilgrimage, as spiritual quest or scientific phenomenon to be witnessed, the winter solstice…Tue Dec 22 1998 - 00:00
Desperation among the quiet livesThe publication in 1980 of William Maxwell's superb short novel, So Long, See You Tomorrow, was deservedly marked by its winning…Sat Dec 12 1998 - 00:00
From the lives of womenPublishers often claim that short stories have limited appeal and that readers prefer the more extended involvement that a novel…Sat Dec 05 1998 - 00:00
The pity of war and its aftermathMuch has been written about the difficulty a writer faces following a well-received first novelSat Nov 14 1998 - 00:00
The rot down SouthIn an age of hype, the celebrity author's personality and array of gimmicks surpasses, even dwarfs, his or her literary merits…Sat Nov 07 1998 - 00:00
McEwan savours Booker as sympathy goes to BainbridgeThe 30th annual Booker McConnell Prize for Fiction, worth £21,000 sterling, was last night presented to Ian McEwan, one of Britain…Wed Oct 28 1998 - 00:00
The seer on his mountain topIf modern America were confined to attributing its recent history to only three events, a convincing case could be made for Pearl…Sat Oct 24 1998 - 01:00
Daring and delicate`Everybody loves this painter," said the American poet Tess Gallagher when launching Bogland & Shoreline Sligo, Sean McSweeney…Sat Oct 17 1998 - 01:00
Chronicler of the Age of AnxietyStyle, linguistic verve and an outrageous comic instinct, evident as early as his first novel, The Rachel Papers (1973), immediately…Sat Oct 17 1998 - 01:00
Powerful testaments to a way of lifeAs if the case with many Irish writers, John McGahern's work has moved from controversy to social history within a couple of …Sat Oct 17 1998 - 01:00
