A Benedict Kiely Reader: Drink to the Bird and Selected Essays review - Words on the importance of place
Wisdom and deftness were tools of writer whose subjects ranged from the lyrical to the sectarian
Ghosts of a Family review: Superlative account of the sectarian McMahon murders
Edward Burke investigates the 1922 massacre in the context of collusion and archives reluctant to yield truth about the North
A Cold Eye by Carlo Gébler: A vivid and arresting diary as memoir
This book is structured as a compendium of diary entries, with one selected each of 35 years
The Boundless River. Stories from the Realm of the Rhine: Exploring a living entity
‘The Rhine, like all rivers, consists not only of the water flowing between its banks but of every part of its vast drainage basin’
Mother Naked: Dazzling work of speculative fiction set in 15th century
Glen James Brown uses his mastery of medieval idiom to weave a tale of fear, violence and class tensions
The Voyageur by Paul Carlucci: Vivid tale of body experiments in 19th-century Canada
Physical reality all too often masked by history is dragged out in gory details not for the squeamish in Paul Carlucci's debut novel
Broken Archangel: The Tempestuous Lives of Roger Casement review
Roland Philipps explores contradictions, complexity and character of an Irish hero in this compelling biography
Ireland Through a Critical Lens by Desmond Bell: Essays about contested identity and place, from Ireland to Germany
Some of the most powerful essays in this book flow from the author’s early experiences as a Protestant in the cauldron of Derry
James and John: A True Story of Prejudice and Murder by Chris Bryant - Hanged for the unmentionable crime of sodomy
The two men of the title would be the last to go to the gallows for the crime in England
Night Swimmers: a Covid novel with an undercurrent of compassion
Night Swimmers is a Covid novel, emphatically so: it is the first spring of the pandemic, the sun shines daily and the air is warm, as if nature is mocking the fear that presses all around
The Book at War by Andrew Pettegree: Role of libraries in history and their shelved contents
A fascinating analysis, one in which the author emphasises that the institution of the library can seldom be regarded as ideologically neutral
Nothing Ever Just Disappears: a queer history by Diarmuid Hester
The great gift of this book is to offer access to optimism, in these late and shadowed days
Late Light: An astonishing account of the natural world
In developing the idea of expansive, planetary politics, Malay offers a bright, fierce hope for the future
Sanderson’s Isle by James Clarke: Portrait of an England long since marginalised, brutalised and silenced
The novel ironises the sort of touring, soft-focus TV series that celebrates all that is quirky and individual in the life of a nation
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein: A terrifying story of abjection
This compelling book serves as a powerful castigation of those who would draw the lines of society and communal identity so as to narrow diversity