Making amends: David Park on loss, regret and youthful idealismBelfast writer has set his ninth novel, Spies in Canaan, during the Vietnam warTue May 17 2022 - 06:00
I, John Kennedy Toole: confederacy of inventionsA diverting curio that can carry us back to a modern classicSat May 14 2022 - 06:00
Jennifer Egan: ‘I was astonished to find I made a lot of factual errors’Writer on latest novel The Candy House, book promotion and the aesthetics of gamingSat Apr 23 2022 - 06:00
Sebastian Barry and John Walsh lift the lid on the literary worldBarry’s lectures cover writing, theatre and family while Walsh reflects on life as an editorWed Apr 13 2022 - 06:00
Adrian Duncan: ‘Peatlands and electricity poles are so giving to me’Berlin-based writer on pursuing obsessions and his novel about a Russian geometerMon Mar 28 2022 - 00:00
Dublin Literary Award shortlist: the six books in running for €100,000 prizeJohn Self reckons The Art of Falling and The Art of Losing are the pick of a strong shortlistTue Mar 22 2022 - 00:01
The Books Quiz: About whose death did Gore Vidal remark, ‘Great career move’?Plus: Which Irish writer contributed to the scandalous musical revue Oh! Calcutta!?Sun Mar 13 2022 - 06:00
Andrew Miller interview: New novel focuses on recovery and regret‘How do you recover from something you’ve no business recovering from?Thu Mar 03 2022 - 06:00
What Is American literature? A fascinating and frustrating overviewBook review: Ilan Stavans attempts to examine a huge topic in less than 200 pagesThu Feb 17 2022 - 06:00
Wendy Erskine: ‘There’s a real high that comes from having written a short story’The Belfast-based writer’s new collection, Dance Move, is packed with life and colourSat Feb 12 2022 - 06:00
Gary Shteyngart: ‘I don’t know how to describe it other than Chekhov’s The Big Chill’The US author on his new Covid novel, and where he’ll flee to when Trump returnsSat Jan 22 2022 - 06:00
‘Writing about the world of your childhood is the hardest thing to do’Jan Carson on her latest book, The Raptures, which she wrote in a cafe in east BelfastSat Jan 08 2022 - 06:00
Brian Moore reissues: fine fictions and experiments from chameleonEmperor of Ice-Cream, Feast of Lupercal and Revolution Script once more see light of daySat Oct 30 2021 - 06:00
Jonathan Franzen: ‘I always thought I’d write six books. And it turns out the sixth is a doozy’The US author explains why he’s all about showing the reader a good timeSat Oct 02 2021 - 06:00
Richard Powers: Pushing environmental awareness to another levelNew ‘intimate’ novel is shortlisted for the Booker before it’s even publishedTue Sept 21 2021 - 05:00
Booker longlist round-up: Sunjeev Sahota looks like a natural Booker authorKaren Jennings, Nathan Harris and Nadifa Mohamed also among nomineesSun Sept 12 2021 - 06:00
Speak, Silence, In Search of WG Sebald: Seek his books insteadCarole Angier’s investigation does little more than send us back to genre-defying writerTue Aug 24 2021 - 00:00
Hugo Hamilton: 'Irish people saw me as this weird child with a German mother'At the centre of the writer's new novel is Rebellion, a book nearly destroyed by NazisSat Jul 17 2021 - 06:00
Philip Ó Ceallaigh: ‘There’s one word and that’s what life is about’Romania-based short story writer on Trouble, translation, novels and brevityThu Jun 03 2021 - 06:00
Keith Ridgway: ‘I was completely content with the idea I would not write again’Irish novelist on his return to writing with A Shock and the characters he fell in love withSat May 29 2021 - 06:00
Realtime Notes: All the news from bad to verseNick Asbury's poems cover the whole gamut of living through the past four yearsWed May 26 2021 - 06:00
Jon McGregor: ‘Book prizes can be useful but can also be a fairly shallow marketing trick’Novelist on his new book, Lean Fall Stand, written 17 years after his trip to AntarcticaThu Apr 29 2021 - 06:00
Philip Roth: Astute appraisals of a larger-than-life writerBook review: Nadel’s book lacks the spark of life that animates Bailey’s RothSat Apr 10 2021 - 06:00
Dublin Literary Award 2021: Which of these six books deserves to win?There is no dilution of quality in this year’s shorter list: every title punches hard for its placeThu Mar 25 2021 - 00:01
Kazuo Ishiguro: ‘I have to be careful to guard against genius syndrome’Nobel laureate on writing his new novel in lockdown and his admiration for Irish cultureThu Feb 25 2021 - 06:00
Hurdy Gurdy: The absurdities of the human condition in the middle of a plagueBook review: Wilson creates a rich seam of comedy and tragedy through the fatal overlap of ignorance with the fervour of the religious zealotSun Feb 14 2021 - 06:00
Must I Go by Yiyun Li: A turn for the worseBook review: The writer’s novel about death and loss is meandering and muddy rather than clearSat Jan 09 2021 - 06:00
Women by Mihail Sebastian: Love from all anglesBook review: Philip Ó Ceallaigh’s translation is a minor masterpiece of voice, mood and emotionThu Jan 07 2021 - 06:00
Douglas Stuart on writing Shuggie Bain: 'It was a difficult process'The Scottish writer on his debut novel, which won the 2020 Booker Prize for FictionTue Nov 24 2020 - 06:00
Who will win the 2020 Booker Prize?This year is first in prize’s history not to have a well-known author on the shortlistSat Nov 14 2020 - 06:00
Breasts and Eggs: Intense, surprising tale of one woman’s angstBook review: Mieko Kawakami’s novel reads like two different books rather than two parts of the same storySat Nov 14 2020 - 06:00
Science fiction: Fast forward into a universal futurePenguin's new series of science-fiction classics aims to remove science fiction from its niche not just in bookshops but in people’s headsTue Nov 10 2020 - 06:00
Goldsmiths Prize: The weird, the wonderful and the man-mermaid sex sceneBeethoven in the US, a book that wriggles like a fish, and ‘Brexhaustion’ – quite a shortlistSun Nov 08 2020 - 06:00
Let’s Do It: So detailed, we can’t see Victoria Wood for the treesTo its credit, Jasper Rees’ flawed authorised biography is not a whitewash and not without insightSat Oct 31 2020 - 06:00
Who will win the International Dublin Literary Award 2020This year’s shortlist is a strong one, with the winner due to be announced on ThursdayWed Oct 21 2020 - 06:00
Andrew O’Hagan: ‘The great chip pan fire novelist of the age’Scots Catholic writer on Mayflies, friendship, cancel culture and ‘being equal to your times’Sat Sept 12 2020 - 06:00
Vesper Flights: A reminder that ‘nature writing’ is for everyoneHelen Macdonald imbues her work with an infectious childlike wonder about the natural worldFri Sept 04 2020 - 06:00
The Number Bias: A provocative look at how we can be misled by numbersBook review: Sanne Blauw uses a playful approach in her mission to demystify the world of numbersSat Aug 08 2020 - 06:00
If the artist offends, should we pluck out their work?So many artists have feet of clay that it is practically part of the uniform. What to do when the work is good and the behaviour harmful? Words have consequencesThu Jul 09 2020 - 06:00
The Dear Departed: Brian Moore’s short stories reveal a writer’s journeyBook review: Moore’s short form work from before 1962 hit on varying degrees of successMon Jun 29 2020 - 06:15
Edna O’Brien: ‘I’ll be 90 this year. I’d like to write one more book’‘I’d like to win prizes, but my inner anxiety is about these words, how to get them out’Tue Jun 16 2020 - 06:15
On Chapel Sands: My Mother and Other Missing PersonsLaura Cumming forensically analyses a child’s abduction and a life’s hidden hollowsThu Jun 04 2020 - 06:00
Richard Ford: ‘In America no one will stay at home’Irishness runs through Richard Ford’s new collection of stories like veins in marbleSat May 09 2020 - 06:10
Gerald Murnane: A great writer with a mind unlike any otherTwo collections, of essays and stories, cement him as Australia’s biggest unknown writerTue May 05 2020 - 06:00
Gains in translations: a round-up of the best new releasesReview of works by Rodaan Al Galidi, Ana María Matute, Adania Shibli, Jorge Franco and Mieko KawakamiSat Apr 25 2020 - 06:00
Robert Webb: ‘It’s mainly a romp and a lark’The Peep Show actor on his new book Come Again, life before lockdown and becoming a novellistSat Apr 18 2020 - 06:00
Notes from an Apocalypse review: Laugh and scream to the bitter endMark O’Connell entertainingly explores the ways life on Earth could all go irreversibly wrongSat Apr 18 2020 - 06:00
Little Eyes: An intriguing concept not fully realisedSamanta Schweblin’s tale of strangers being paired through technology falls just shortMon Apr 13 2020 - 06:00
Hamnet: Historical novel connects death of a son with the birth of HamletBook review: Maggie O’Farrell recreates Shakespeare’s family and that of Elizabethan EnglandSat Apr 04 2020 - 06:00
The Bass Rock: Challenging and gripping readBook review: Violence against women is prominent in Evie Wyld’s complex novelFri Apr 03 2020 - 06:00
