War as a bizarre abstraction: Uncertain Glory, by Joan SalesReview: Life beyond politics during Spain’s bloody civil warSat Nov 01 2014 - 01:00
12 great German works to mark Reformation DayMartin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to a church door 497 years ago today. Now Eileen Battersby nails her German colours to the mastFri Oct 31 2014 - 17:51
10 scary stories for HalloweenYou may be too old to go trick or treating, but are you brave enough to read one of these tales before you go to sleep tonight?Fri Oct 31 2014 - 07:08
Dylan Thomas 100 years on – still beguiling readers with his ‘eloquent fury’Centenary of the birth of the Welsh poet, who ‘manages to juxtapose the sonorous tones of the pulpit with the intimate squeak of a mouse’Mon Oct 27 2014 - 01:00
Richard Ford’s sharp tales with a whiff of mortality: Let Me Be Frank With YouThe great American writer’s new book is a slight one for him – but it’s a welcome return for Frank BascombeSat Oct 25 2014 - 01:00
Richard Flanagan: war, the Booker and a life more circularThe Tasmanian’s novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, about Australian POWs doomed to build the Burma Death Railway, is the first great work to win the Booker since 2001Tue Oct 21 2014 - 01:00
Flawed father and fraternity: FReview: A hilarious, often touching novel about a faulty father’s effect on his sonsSat Oct 18 2014 - 01:00
Man Booker Prize 2014: Richard Flanagan wins‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’ is a powerful and sometimes brutal love storyWed Oct 15 2014 - 09:21
Humane search for meaning: I Refuse by Per PettersonReview: In charting a life of losses, this novel has much to say about the struggle to make sense of existenceSat Oct 11 2014 - 01:00
Bleak and courageous: Lila, by Marilynne RobinsonReview: ‘She is concerned with the ways in which families evolve; the lore, the back history, the hurts and the secrets.’Sat Oct 04 2014 - 01:00
Reasons to read Ian McEwan, and the ones to avoidFive of the best, and three of the worstSun Sept 28 2014 - 01:00
Tried and found wanting: The Children Act, by Ian McEwanReview: the chillingly formidable author has produced an ill-judged study of a legal mindSun Sept 28 2014 - 01:00
Portrait of an artist at war: The Burning of the WorldReview: A young Hungarian painter gives an astonishingly vivid account of his time on the Eastern FrontSat Sept 27 2014 - 01:00
Saying nein to the Nazi way: YouthReview: An autobiographical novel by Wolfgang Koeppel, one of Germany’s great postwar writers, gets a brilliant translationSat Sept 20 2014 - 01:00
Martin Amis: ‘How can one claim to be human without looking at what we have done?’Martin Amis is a deeply moral writer with a Swiftian vigour. In his latest novel, ‘The Zone of Interest’, he returns to the story of the Nazi death campsSat Sept 20 2014 - 01:00
The dead among the living: Pedro PáramoGhostly voices and visions propel Juan Rolfo’s masterpiece about a quest to find a tyrannical fatherSat Sept 13 2014 - 01:00
TH White, falconry and the natural worldAn Irishwoman’s Diary on the eccentric logic of the writer of ‘The Once and Future King’Tue Sept 09 2014 - 01:00
Prix Goncourt winner balances humour and horror: The Sermon of the Fall of RomeReview: Jérôme Ferrari’s Corsican saga stretches across generations and draws on both history and human experienceSat Aug 30 2014 - 01:00
Eccentric tale with a tragic dimension: The Buddha’s ReturnRussian writer’s whacky but charming novel has shades of DostoyevskySat Aug 23 2014 - 01:00
Castle Leslie’s playground for horse loversThe relaxed independence of Castle Leslie Estate, in Co Monaghan, is a paradise for horse lovers, who can even bring their mount on holiday with themSat Aug 23 2014 - 01:00
Unsettling, audacious Martin Amis: The Zone of InterestReview: A brave, humane novel, set in a concentration camp, takes a hard look the attrocities of the second World WarSat Aug 16 2014 - 01:00
Iza’s Ballad (translation)Review: A heartbreakingly beautiful English translation of a 1963 novel by a gifted Hungarian writer is bound to be one of the year’s most loved booksSat Aug 09 2014 - 01:00
An imagination shaped by warAn Irishwoman’s Diary about the great writer Tove JanssonSat Aug 09 2014 - 01:00
Becoming Mr ItalyTim Parks never wanted to become ‘Mr Italy’ but as an Englishman living in Verona he’s found himself explaining the country to the rest of the worldSat Aug 09 2014 - 01:00
An Irishwoman's Diary: A mercurial Peter Pan of literatureThe great French writer Colette was the first French woman to be given a state funeral - although she was denied a Catholic one because of her two divorcesTue Aug 05 2014 - 01:00
Genius of a Japanese master: Life of a Counterfeiter and The Hunting GunReview: A melancholic wisdom distinguishes two novels by Yasushi Inoue, one of the 20th century’s literary lightsSat Aug 02 2014 - 01:00
Iron Gustav: Could this be one of the finest novels any of us will ever read?Review: Finally available in its complete form, Hans Fallada’s tome is a masterful study of dire adversitySat Jul 26 2014 - 01:00
Uninspired longlist in a Booker year of paucityAustralian writer Richard Flanagan’s war novel ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’ deserves to win the prizeThu Jul 24 2014 - 01:00
Unrelentingly ambitious: Nothing Holds Back the NightReview: De Vigan asks for nothing – not even our sympathySat Jul 19 2014 - 01:16
Dark, cautionary tale of deepest Colombia: In The Beginning Was The SeaReview: A pitch-perfect translation adds to the Patricia Highsmith-like menace of this debut novelSat Jul 19 2014 - 01:00
Exhibition of Irish and Italian artists opens at the CasinoDublin’s famous neo classical villa at Marino provides inspiration for the artistsMon Jul 14 2014 - 01:00
Gabby cabby in the nerve centre of terror: Noon Tide TollReview: Romesh Gunesekera’s post-war Sri Lankan taxi driver is mouthy but likeable in a book that will draw a new generation of readers to this most sympathetic of writersSat Jul 12 2014 - 01:17
Mayo writer Colin Barrett wins Frank O’Connor award with debut collectionBarrett is just second Irish winner of the €25,000 prize, after Edna O’BrienFri Jul 11 2014 - 11:20
Rasputin, the tsars, Tolstoy and their world: Subtly Worded & Other StoriesReview: A Russian satirist , who met both Rasputin and Tolstoy, provides a singular insight into her eraSat Jul 05 2014 - 01:00
White truths: why novelist Edmund White believes love is worth dying forCandour and honesty define the life and work of Edmund White, the prolific American novelist with a genius for expressing the agonies of human sexualitySat Jul 05 2014 - 01:00
Poet and novelist Dermot Healy dies aged 66He is as important a social commentator as John McGahern and John B KeaneMon Jun 30 2014 - 10:24
An Irishwoman’s Diary on Australian novelist Miles FranklinThe woman behind one of the liveliest debuts in literary historyMon Jun 30 2014 - 01:00
An eloquent, shocking memorial: The Narrow Road to the Deep NorthThere isn’t a dud note in Richard Flanagan’s Homeric new novelSat Jun 28 2014 - 01:00
Evie Wyld wins Miles Franklin Award for ‘All the Birds, Singing’Australian-English writer secures third literary prize in a weekThu Jun 26 2014 - 20:30
A moral thriller driven by small town menace: All Is SilenceManuel Rivas recounts a vivid comedy rooted in Spain – and almost creates a great Irish novelSat Jun 21 2014 - 01:00
Murder, but only in the best possible taste: The Art of Killing WellMarco Malvadi’s mix of history, cookery and whodunnit is a recipe for a great summer readSat Jun 14 2014 - 01:00
Juan Gabriel Vásquez: ‘I write these books to help me understand Colombia’The cerebral writer has won the International Impac Dublin Literary Award for a novel that recalls drug baron Pablo Escobar’s reign of corruption but also offers a portrait of contemporary ColombiaThu Jun 12 2014 - 18:15
Juan Gabriel Vásquez wins 2014 Impac awardColombian writer takes the €100,000 prize for The Sound of Things FallingThu Jun 12 2014 - 12:05
Death of a naturalist: Trilobites and Other StoriesThe stories in Breece Pancake’s sole collection are timeless portraits of the American SouthSat Jun 07 2014 - 01:00
The perils of not letting goAustralian novelist Tim Winton has produced a profound tale of a last stab at salvation in ‘Eyrie’Sat Jun 07 2014 - 01:00
