Three Wild Dogs (and the Truth) by Markus Zusak: When the family pets are ‘complete b*stards’ but also ‘beautiful darlings’
A frequently hilarious and also heartbreaking memoir about dogs you would cross the street to avoid
Tenterhooks by Claire-Lise Kieffer: A strikingly original debut story collection
The stories are humorous but never cheerful, the characters often repellently fascinating
The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth by Adrian Duncan: Captivating fiction about the emotional life of statues
Duncan’s is an utterly distinctive voice in contemporary Irish literature
The Nazi Mind and The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis: alliance between ‘monsters’ and ‘ordinary people’
Meticulously researched, brilliantly written and passionately argued, these books are indispensable and timely
What Art Does: An Unfinished Theory by Brian Eno, Bette A. Nothing less than a call to arms
Brian Eno, musicial maverick and sometime U2 producer, and Dutch artist and writer Bette A explore what art is and its potential to help humanity to change course
The Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O’Connor: Follow-up to My Father’s House draws an extraordinary picture of Rome under Nazi control
The Choir, led by Irish priest Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, rescue and secrete escaped Allied POWs, Italian anti-fascists and Jews on the run
Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (Vol 14) 1969-73: The North, above all else, required the Department of Foreign Affairs to up its game
Gleanings from departmental archives are pieces of jigsaw puzzles which illuminate decision- and policymaking, and the relationships of key figures
Fiction in translation: A glimpse of failed far-right coup leader’s assured gifts as a storyteller
Works by Yukio Mishima, Samar Yazbek, Solvej Balle, Zahran Alqasmi and Vincenzo Latronico
Power and Powerlessness in Union Ireland: illuminating Ireland pre-independence
Author turns to new and often-overlooked source material for a fresh examination of the nation before independence
Reviews in brief: How the ‘other’ lives and writes, high-school satire and self-destructive undergrads
To Save and to Destroy by Viet Thanh Nguyen; Shock Induction by Chuck Palahniuk; and These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever
The Amergin Step: An Exploration in the Imagination of Iveragh by Paddy Bushe
Erudite and entertaining writer takes reader on journey with rich narrative tapestry of history, music and anecdote
The Last Days of Budapest by Adam LeBor: Examining the destruction in second World War’s final year
Author uses newly discovered documents, diaries and interviews to create a compelling story of one of the least remembered episodes of recent European history
Silent Catastrophes by WG Sebald review: Hope may be the thing just seems miserable
WG Sebald’s early essays on Austrian literature offer compelling insights into his thinking, clunkily
The Book of George by Kate Greathead: The arrested development and identity crisis of a modern man
An intimate character study of a millennial man bumbling through life
To Save the Man review: Powerful and sincere depiction of Native-American history
Film-maker John Sayles draws on astonishing people and events to portray acts of betrayal suffered by Native Americans
The Cleaner by Mary Watson: A novel probing class and privilege tends to overexplain
As a whole, this moral tale of revenge is compulsive and ambitious
Slow Train Coming by Todd Almond: The inside story of Bob Dylan and Conor McPherson’s stage collaboration
American production of a play with music, Girl from the North Country, was more fraught than most
Children’s fiction: Five books to delight the younger reader with tales of magical cats, geese and squirrels - and a busy girl called Wanda
Horrible guardians, an absent mother and a child who enters a secret laboratory make for enjoyable reads
Filthy Queens: A History of Beer in Ireland – A quaffable and comprehensive history that leaves the reader with a thirst for more
In a manner not unlike Forrest Gump, beer meets famous Irish characters through history, from St Brigid to Daniel O’Connell
The Whale Tattoo and The Gallopers by Jon Ransom: A pair of intriguing, imperfect novels
It will be interesting to see whether the author is willing to move out of his comfort zone
Confessions by Catherine Airey: A remarkably confident, complex and nuanced debut novel
This multigenerational, transatlantic family saga starts with 9/11 and swerves back in time to Donegal in the 1970s
Crime fiction: Quirky killers, an offbeat cop and the grimier side of Paris and the Costa Blanca
Declan Burke reviews Murder Mindfully by Karsten Dusse, Asia Mackay’s A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage, Uketsu’s Strange Pictures, Sam Blake’s The Killing Sense and Esther García Llovet’s Spanish Beauty
Three key takes on China: On Xi Jinping; The Political Thought of Xi Jinping; and The New Cold War
Influential writers look at how the Chinese leader is moulding his country - and the West - to fit his vision
Patria: Lost Countries of South America by Laurence Blair – Unearthing South America’s forgotten nations
Blair reports from the front line of the war between big business and the indigenous communities, all the while connecting the past with the present
Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan: Insight, laughs and a heavy understanding of how difficult life is for young millennials and Gen Zs
Dinan is also excellent on the often anti-erotic experience of modern dating
My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria by Andrée Blouin – An intense history of colonialism
Blouin’s story serves as a microcosm for the near misses, cycles and reason-defying hope that characterise Africa’s past
Otherworld by Lisa M Bitel: A joyous selection of Ireland’s oldest, lesser known folk tales
No Sally Rooney-type introspection in epic stories dating from Iron Age in this enchanting collection
Didier Fassin’s Moral Abdication: How the World Failed to Stop the Destruction of Gaza
‘Commentators found it impossible to imagine a different camp: the camp of life’ when faced with demands to cease the slaughter of innocents
The Sound of Utopia: Musicians in the Time of Stalin – Silencing tactics in the Soviet Union
Dutch journalist Michel Krielaars infuses a bleak subject with verve
Season by George Harrison & Greatest of All Time by Alex Allison: A brace of novels that hit the back of the net
One book concerns itself with long-suffering fans, while other focuses on love affair between players
Another Man in the Street by Caryl Phillips: Migration, loneliness and broken dreams
Novel delicately portrays the journey of a migrant caught between dreams of success and the harsh realities of life in post-war England
The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick: A love letter to New York and the solo life
Now released in the UK and Ireland, Gornick’s memoir of city life, friendship and gender inequality explores the joy and challenges of living alone
Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell: A confident and compelling debut novel about coercive control
A woman escapes her manipulative creep of a husband. This powerful book asks: what now?
Fragments of Victory: the Contemporary Irish Left, edited by Oisín Gilmore and David Landy
While recent struggles occupy the authors, a deeper examination of working-class politics in 20th-century Ireland would have been revealing
January’s YA titles: meditations on grief and mortality (don’t worry, there is still kissing)
Including Let the Light In by Jenny Downham and Louis Hill; After Life by Gayle Forman, and The Boy I Love by William Hussey
I’ll Never Call Him Dad Again: Account by daughter of Gisèle and Dominique Pelicot contains chilling detail
Caroline Darian’s book is an uncomfortable read, albeit one with great immediacy, that is let down at times by its translation
New books about inequality by Thomas Piketty: Counterpoints to the Trump-Musk war on the state
Among the French economist’s arguments is that ‘no credible solution to the challenge of global warming is imaginable without a drastic reduction in inequality’
A Tract for Our Times: A Retrospective on Joe Lee’s Ireland 1912–1985: Reappraisal of a historic classic
Nine contributors’ fresh engagement with Lee’s main themes is testament to the ongoing significance of his writing
Good Girl by Aria Aber: A portrait of the artist as a young Berliner
An engaging coming-of-age novel about a young artist whose development feels, even at its end, unfinished
Book reviews in brief: teenage love, the power of nature and the chaos of motherhood
Books by Jane DeLynn, Don Conroy and Jenny Slate
The Party by Tessa Hadley review: Immersive novella set in postwar Bristol
Tessa Hadley’s storytelling and linguistic dexterity mines the imbalance between the sexes
Lustful Appetites: An Intimate History of Good Food and Wicked Sex review: Morality and lasciviousness on a plate
Rachel Hope Cleves serves up racy account of Anglo-American and French dining proclivities
Hope by Pope Francis review: Don’t believe the hype, this is another triumph of marketing over substance
Far from the autobiography it is described as, Francis uses recollections to reflect on current events
Sci-fi and fantasy round-up: Watch out for a weird time-travelling mother and a half-human, half-mosquito anti-heroine
New novels by Nnedi Okorafor, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Elly Griffiths, Makana Yamamoto and Michel Neva
The Medieval Irish Kings and the English Invasion review: Insightful history from an Irish perspective
Seán Ó Hoireabhárd offers clear narrative and succinct analysis of political evolution of Irish kingship
The Philosophy of Translation by Damion Searls: Illuminating and invigorating despite unfortunate title
With exceptionally clear prose Searls aims to draw wider conclusions about the nature of the translator’s task from an attentive reflection on his own translations from German, Norwegian, French and Dutch
New poetry: What Remains the Same; An Arbitrary Light Bulb; Harmony Unfinished; Adam
Martina Evans reviews works by Alvy Carragher, Ian Duhig, Grace Wilentz and the late Gboyega Odunbanjo
Bonnard by Isabelle Cahn review: Shrewd and illuminating on an artist more radical than Picasso
A sumptuous volume about the French painter Pierre Bonnard, with scores of captivating reproductions
Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin - Sad, fascinating and highly troubling
Sue Prideaux’s book is intriguing and engaging but must be read with care
The Magic of Silence: Caspar David Friedrich’s Journey Through Time review – An intriguing take on the life and work of the German painter
Friedrich was the go-to for showing figures from behind – mainly, it transpires, because he wasn’t very good at faces
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE...
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
The GlossOpens in new window
Read the digital edition of The Gloss magazine now
Gloss Interiors Opens in new window
Stay ahead of the trend with the Spring edition
Family NoticesOpens in new window
Weddings, Births, Deaths and other family notices