The Troublemaker by Mark L Clifford: Story of tycoon turned activist Jimmy Lai is consistently compelling
Clifford avoids hagiography in this rags-to-riches-to-prison-scrubs biography of the dissident billionaire
Lost Souls: Soviet Displaced Persons and the Birth of the Cold War – A fascinating chronicle of postwar resettlement
Soviet history specialist covers the repatriation and resettlement of millions after second World War
The Genetic Book of the Dead by Richard Dawkins: An exploration of where we came from and where we are going
Beautifully illustrated book explores science of how living creatures came to look and behave as we do
Unfortunately, She Was a Nymphomaniac: This makes Game of Thrones look like a Jane Austen TV adaptation
An exceptional, truth-restoring work of nonfiction about the extraordinarily brave fights women of the Roman empire put up against systematic domestic abuse and femicide
Power to the People: The Hot Press Years by Michael D Higgins. Minority reports from Ireland of the 1980s and 1990s
This selection of the President’s magazine columns is a diverse collection of journalism from the left of the Irish political spectrum
Fiction in translation: Alejandro Zambra rescues fatherhood from the box-ticking dutifulness of parenting manuals
Reviews of works by Alejandro Zambra, Toon Tellegen, Gaëlle Bélem and the Marquis de Sade
Latin America’s female new wave finds its voice
Political and social turmoil provide the backdrop to themes of violence and identity for this burgeoning generation of writers
Alan Bennett’s Beckettian look at life in a care home; Irish links with Romanov Russia; bell hooks on girlhood
Killing Time by Alan Bennett; Anarchy and Authority: Irish Encounters with Romanov Russia by Angela Byrne; Bone Black by bell hooks
Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: How India’s possibly Irish first newspaper editor fell foul of its British rulers
William Hicky, who launched Asia’s first newspaper, was prosecuted for libel and sparked a sensational eight-year trial
Architectural Tales by Dominic Stevens: Imaginative reflections on the spaces we create, and the spaces in between
Acclaimed Irish architect Dominic Stevens experiments in and excels at writing too
The Rose Garden by Maeve Brennan: Stories that refuse to behave
The publication of The Rose Garden completes The Stinging Fly’s three-volume collection of Maeve Brennan’s published work
Republic: Britain’s Revolutionary Decade 1649-1660 by Alice Hunt – England’s brief flirtation with a royalty-free constitution
History of Cromwell’s experiment with republicanism is restricted to England and debating chambers of London
Human Peoples by Lluis Quintana-Murci: The grand genetic history of our species
Where we went, who we mixed with and how it provided us with the ability to survive deadly bacteria and viruses
Irish Materialisms: The Nonhuman and the Making of Colonial Ireland - Fierce effort to recover world lost to Famine
Author uses objects and animals to help us get past condescending or racist accounts of the Irish poor
A cross-section of Ireland’s historical buildings and the materials that went into making them
Books on Ireland’s built heritage from Robert O’Byrne, Peter Harbison, Michael Lunt, Susan Roundtree, Ian Hannigan and Andrew Ziminski
Crime fiction: New from Amy Jordan, Vaseem Khan, Kotaro Isaka, Kylie Lee Baker plus 2024′s best American stories
Bat Eater is an astonishing work of speculative crime fiction; Hotel Lucky Seven is more delightful the more it gives itself over to its own nearly delirious excesses
Author’s musings on death place a comforting hand around the flickering candle of life
Books by Elias Canetti, Kirsten Miller, Angeline King, Noel Russell, Ben Macintyre and Robert Schmuhl
‘Narratively ingenious with gorgeously toothsome art and character design’: The best graphic novels of 2024
From Lynda Barry’s moving and frequently hilarious workbook for making and thinking to Seán Hogan’s ripping yarn set in a Tipperary town
Indeterminate Inflorescence by Lee Seong-bok: The record of a craftsman trying to understand their art in real time
‘A poem is a coherent rambling. If there is only coherence or only rambling, poetry disappears’
Last lord of Malahide Castle at centre of strange tale that reflects an era when being gay was unacceptable
Undercover: Two Secret Lives by Tony Scotland recounts the author’s involvement with Milo, Lord Talbot de Malahide
Zero Sum: The Arc of International Business in Russia by Charles Hecker – Making money in the Wild East
As communism turned to right-wing authoritarianism, Moscow became an immense version of Dodge City or Tombstone
Monasticism in Ireland: AD 900-1250 by Edel Bhreathnach – A valuable contribution to the history of the Irish church
A scholarly work that seeks to deepen our understanding of Irish monasticism and its influence on church traditions
Tribal: How the Cultural Instincts That Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together by Michael Morris
‘Different groups learn in different ways ... so they develop different pools of common knowledge: different cultures’
Remembered Fragments. A Memoir: compelling, informative and entertaining
This story turns on complicated relationships between different traditions in Ireland and how barriers can be overcome
Patriot by Alexei Navalny: Posthumous book underlines Putin critic’s final message: don’t give up
Highly readable account of a remarkable political life has a conversational tone, reflecting Navalny’s metier of social media
Kaput. The End of the German Miracle: Acerbic chronicle of a country’s fall from grace
Former Financial Times journalist explains failures and fallacies that caused his country to lose its way
Vatican Spies by Yvonnick Denoel: This could have provided John le Carré with enough material for a second career
This is a thoroughly researched book about espionage on and by the Vatican
Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik: It’s almost unfair for a biography to be such fun
This is less a sequel to the author’s Hollywood’s Eve than a retelling, with Didion now cast as the lead
Rinsed: From Cartels to Crypto: How the Tech Industry Washes Money for the World’s Deadliest Crooks by Geoff White - An engrossing and mind-blowing guide
Today’s technologies are facilitating crime on a vast scale, and Ireland has a significant footprint in this murky, international gang-controlled world
December’s YA picks: Genre fiction where horror tropes are subverted, thwarted and perpetuated
Including books by Susan Cahill; Bill Wood; Scarlett Dunmore; Rosie Talbot and Sarah Maxwell; and Bex Hogan
Kevin Power: Literary magazines are all the more vital for operating off the commercial grid
This rich universe of words includes The Stinging Fly, Banshee, Ragaire, Splonk, Sonder, The Four-Faced Liar, The Pig’s Back, Profiles and Southword
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller: A beautiful, slow-burning novel
Sentences of unrelenting realism builds up gradually, layer by layer, to an astonishing depth and tenderness
She’s Always Hungry by Eliza Clark: Punchy, funny and unapologetically perturbing short stories
The visceral quality of the writing binds these stories together, sharing a taste for queasy horror and delighting in discomfort
Caricature and the Irish: Satirical Prints from the Library of Trinity College, Dublin c 1780-1830
This selection provides a stimulating guide to the collection of graphic satire engravings assembled by Nicholas K Robinson, one of Ireland’s less well-known cultural treasures
Eve in Ireland: Controlling and Silencing Irish Women, 1922-1972 by Ailish McFadden
A distillation of considerable source material to produce this riveting overview leavened by an edge of personal reflection
Revolutionary Times: Accessible account of a pivotal decade in Irish history
This beautifully presented book captures the political and cultural events of the years 1913-1923 with convincing contemporary-style newspaper reportage
Letters by Oliver Sacks review: Great light cast on neurologist, author and humanist
Kate Edgar’s compilation paints a detailed portrait of a sometimes shy, uncertain, excitable human who was also a deeply compassionate and open-hearted outsider
Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel by Edwin Frank – A must-buy for fans of fiction writing
While Joyce, Proust and Thomas Mann dominate, the right of authors to write exactly what they are inspired to write is a central issue for Frank
The best crime fiction of 2024: Robert Harris, Jane Casey, Joe Thomas, Kellye Garrett, Stuart Neville and many more
Declan Burke, Elizabeth Mannion and Brian Cliff round up their favourite crime novels of the year
Every Valley: The Story of Handel’s Messiah by Charles King – Not the work of a ‘lone genius’ but a collaborative achievement
Librettist Charles Jennens is given his due in the creation of a beloved standard of classical repertoire, which has strong links to Dublin
Music books round-up: from George Harrison’s blues to Kate Bush’s songbirds
501 Essential Albums of the ’90s is US-centric; while Further Adventures in Record Collecting: Dust & Grooves Vol 2 is wonderful if eye-wateringly expensive
New poetry: Works by Niall Campbell, Elisa Gonzalez, John McAuliffe and John Fitzgerald
Reviews: The Island in the Sound; Grand Tour; National Theatre; and Long Distance
Kevin Power: I took a deep dive into Irish literary magazines and would do it again without hesitation
Between Holy Show, Dublin Review of Books, Tolka and the Dublin Review, I had a high stack on my desk
I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest with You by Miranda Hart: A self-help memoir that is helpful but too long
People suffering from chronic fatigue-type illnesses could potentially benefit enormously from reading this book, but are likely to be frustrated by its long-windedness
Small Rain review: An earnest exploration of illness and art
Garth Greenwell’s third novel looks at how slow recovery can become a rehabilitation to life and literature
Dear Orson Welles & Other Essays by Mark Cousins: A generous, playful and unpretentious collection
The self-confessed ‘altar boy in the church of cinema’ propels the reader comfortably from one argument to the next
The Color of Family: History, Race and the Politics of Ancestry: Academic page-turner decodes US administrative racism
Michael O’Malley explores how scientific biology informs the arbitrariness of ‘racecraft’ found in family records
The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World by David Graeber: Intense flares of thought from a brilliant mind
This chunk of writing spanning 30 years provides an ideal entry point to new readers of Graeber, while for those returning to his ideas, the pleasure is in the writing
John Montague: A Poet’s Life by Adrian Frazier: ‘ruthless intimacy’
Adrian Frazier’s no-holds-barred biography of the American-born Irish poet acknowledges the cost of a life turned ‘into the achievement of poetry’
Winter Papers: This handsome volume, now in its 10th issue, is full of wakeful, creative energy
Kevin Barry, Aingeala Flannery, Lucy Caldwell and more contribute to ambitious collection
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