Exhibit by RO Kwon: The shame of longing
An audacious story of three Korean women bravely explores art, feminism and female desire
Murder in the Gulag: The Life and Death of Alexei Navalny by John Sweeney – A grimly fascinating read
Author provides a genuinely frightening depiction of what it means to challenge the Russian leader
I Will Show You How It Was: A reminder that it could have been so much worse for Ukraine
This book is a kind of love letter to journalism, to Ukraine and to Kyiv as it drives the enemy from the gates
Welcome to Glorious Tuga: A heart-warming novel of travel, identity and belonging
Francesca Segal explores how the bonds of community and friendship can be as strong as those of family
Paul Foot – A Life in Politics: Writing and fighting for what he believed in
A journalist who never deviated from his craft’s objective: holding the centre of power to account
Equality: The History of an Elusive Idea review - A self-evident truth?
Hypocrisy and hope lie behind an idea of great importance to the unequal societies of our unequal world
The Echoes by Evie Wyld review: Lives in limbo
A ghost is one of the narrators in this engaging novel set between England and Australia
Celestial bodies, murder and time travel: YA books for August
Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick, Chris Ricketts, Rebecca Anderson, Lauren James and Brian Dungan deal with subjects from gender and love to internet culture
Paschal Donohoe on The Centre Must Hold, edited by Yair Zivan, and Left Behind by Paul Collier
Two books attempt to diagnose our discontents and offer advice for a better and safer world
Rare Singles by Benjamin Myers: Like the literary love child of David Nicholls and Nick Hornby
A love story and celebration of the redemptive power of music
The Accidental Garden by Richard Mabey: An instructive and exciting volume
A slim volume, packed with knowledge, insight and ‘taste’, is a beacon at a time of worldwide biodiversity loss
Travelling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell - Engrossing musical and cultural critique
The beautifully crafted prose spares our minds from information implosion
True Love by Paddy Crewe: gritty and engrossing
Novel follows the destinies of two very different protagonists
Ambassador of Nowhere: A Latin American Pilgrimage - inquisitive journeying
Richard Gwyn blends memoir, cultural travel and political history
Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang: An ambitious and promising debut about forbidden love in 1980s China
The men in the novel, married to women, hardly look at their male lovers
Fixing France: How to Repair a Broken Republic by Nabila Ramdani – A persuasive case
The author cites the military coup mounted in Algiers on May 13th, 1958, as the source of many of the problems that beset France today
Everyone I Know Is Dying by Emily Slapper: The shadow of a good novel
A generous reader will feel what the author is trying to do - but there’s not enough cause and effect in the telling
Science-fiction books: Keanu Reeves takes the action-packed philosophical route
Plus, new works from Adrian Tchaikovsky, Gary J Martin, Cixin Liu and Joanne Harris
Anyone’s Ghost: Powerful debut about lifelong love for an unattainable boy
August Thompson’s novel revolving around unrequited love is full of loneliness as it sensitively tracks a friendship across a decade
When the Clock Broke by John Ganz: A superb book about the roots of Trumpism
Ganz examines the restive period of early 1990s, when ‘an intense anguish’ took hold in American life
Italy Reborn: From Fascism to Democracy: Lazy political cliches neatly upturned
Mark Gilbert rehabilitates Alcide de Gaspari as one of 20th-century Europe’s key political leaders
New poetry: Ancient Burial Ground; Cargo; Silver; After You Were I Am
Reviews of new work by Will Burns; Polina Cosgrave; Rowan Ricardo Phillips and Camille Ralphs
Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World by Anne Applebaum: Disturbing account of strongmen’s links
Anne Applebaum portrays the ongoing international destruction of democracy but neglects to a degree the potential of China and how kleptocracy is now deeply ingrained into every geopolitical system
Father, Son & Brother Ghost by John MacKenna: Subtle artistry by one of Ireland’s best writers
With fierce intelligence and without an ounce of sentimentality, the author traces a history of grief that has shaped his personality
Lemony Snicket: And Then? And Then? What Else?: A Writer’s Life by Daniel Handler - A thoughtful and eloquent celebration of story
Not quite a memoir, this book makes some personal disclosures and illuminates the bestselling author’s artistic influences
The Origin of Ireland’s Ordnance Survey: Charting the intriguing backstory of the survey’s birth in 1824
A tasty appetiser of the OSI’s primordial days that may perhaps lead to a wider banquet
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’
The Language of Architectural Classicism by Edward McParland: A masterpiece of discovery
‘Looking at the illustrations and reading the captions alone would be an excellent introduction to this eye-opening book’
The High Seas by Olive Heffernan: An expert’s enthralling view of the oceans is short on hope
Heffernan documents many of the threats to the mysterious area covering two-thirds of our planet
The End of Drum Time: Stunning novel of love affair set in 19th-century Lapland
Hanna Pylväinen has written a rich, lyrical and ethnographic tale of romance among the Sámi and their landscape
Fiction in translation: works from Palestine, Catalonia, France, Germany and Sweden
Reissues and new translations of Mourid Barghouti, Pol Guasch, Catherine Axelrad, Ibtisam Azem, Hanna Johannson and Yoko Towada
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 Coin by Yasmin Zaher: Mad, brilliant novel about a Palestinian woman in New York
Obsessive cleaning and cynicism about designer brands are elements of this debut about a Palestinian woman
Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good by Eley Williams: Moderate to good, occasionally great
The occasional misfires in this collection are easy to overlook amid so many delightfully comic stories executed with precision and care
Irish First Ladies and First Gentlemen, 1919-2011 by Bernadette Whelan: All the presidents’ spouses
An informative and eminently readable work about an undefined but important role in Irish public life
Ireland out of England: The learned forgetting and remembering of a unionist Brexiteer
Brendan O’Leary gets to grips with John Wilson Foster’s collection of essays
Identity by John Sweetman: a good cop comes clean
Former Garda John Sweetman looks back on his career, both as a mule and a member of the Garda Technical Bureau
Going Home by Tom Lamont: beautiful, compelling story of male relationships
Despite plot holes, this novel is worth persevering with
Birding by Rose Ruane: Friendship, friction and moments of reckoning
Author’s playful sense of humour adds levity to this moving and uplifting book
The Night-Soil Men: Funny fictionalised history of the Independent Labour Party
Bill Broady’s vignettes use sharply observant but compassionate caricature to illuminate the UK’s political past
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors: Crackling sibling chemistry
Second novel from the author of Cleopatra and Frankenstein focuses on three sisters
The Last Sane Woman: Friendship, feminism and the art world
Hannah Regel’s debut novel is wrought with tenderness and a buoyant light touch
Look at the USA: A Diary of War and Home: Truth of photos fuels human sorrow
Peter van Agtmael’s unsettling photographs portray the misery and horror of violent conflict
Local history: Six books that lift the lid on times past
Abbey Lea: A Killiney History; Hardiman & Beyond: The Arts & Culture of Galway since 1820; Armagh: The Irish Revolution, 1912-23; and much more
Night of Power by Robert Fisk: A masterly work by a unique and gifted ‘historian of the present’
Posthumous book explores the post-9/11 years in the Middle East, setting his reporting against the background of centuries of meddling by western powers
Cross by Austin Duffy: A high-wire act pulled off with almost complete success
This book is not perfect but it will well wroth reading, not least for its crackling dialogue, jet-black humour and characters that are memorable and complex
Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner: Following up Fleishman Is in Trouble was never going to be easy
This is an enjoyable read in the same vein as the author’s best-selling debut, but there is a lingering sense that she is playing it safe
Bodies by Christine Anne Foley: a slippery, shape-shifting story about the indignities of modern dating
Bodies moves away from its realist literary opening into something approaching horror but ends up being a lot of fun
Best crime fiction: Witness 8 is a welcome addition to Steve Cavanagh’s Eddie Flynn series
Also reviewed: Clete by James Lee Burke; ; Anna Pitoniak’s The Helsinki Affair; Eli Cranor’s Broiler; and Havoc by Deborah J Ledford
The House of Beckham by Tom Bower review: A grubby litany of accusations and snide remarks
A litany of accusations and snide remarks, with no genuine insight into the dynamic between the couple
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