Book Club

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A tribute to Nell McCafferty

Books newsletter: Irish Writers’ Weekend in London; Kit de Waal to judge Women’s Prize for Fiction; Oscar Wilde exhibition; Korean prize for Anna Burns

Circling The Square hits the spot

Books newsletter: Forward prizes; Baillie Gifford shortlist; Claire Keegan wins Lenz Prize; Bookshop of the Year; Writer of Courage 2024; Tanya Sweeney book deal; Leaves Festival; Macavity Awards

Anne Haverty to give Stinging Fly annual lecture

Books newsletter: Tomorrow’s pages; Irish judges for Nero awards; Rooney Writer Fellow; ISLA, Bram Stoker, IMRAM and Murder One festivals; Irish Book Week; Publishers for Palestine

Freyja Hellebust wins Gerald Griffin Competition

Books newsletter: Saturday’s pages; Belfast International Arts Festival; Red Line Book Festival; TS Eliot lecture; Allingham Festival; Oisín Fagan book deal; Semaus Heaney fellows; In Their Shoes podcast

Children’s Books Ireland reading guide launched

Books newsletter: Saturday’s pages previewed; Wendy Erskine, Fíona Scarlett, Seán Farrell book deals; TCD arts festival; Italian book festival; Anne Enright event; Dayton Literary Peace Prize; MoLI seeks new director

Garth Risk Hallberg’s The Second Coming: Bigger isn’t always better

Creaking under its own weight, at half the size this could have been twice as powerful

Una Mannion wins Gold Dagger Award

Books newsletter: a wrap of the latest news and preview of tomorrow’s pages

Rebecca Watson: ‘There’s a simpler way to tell the story. But it would feel less honest to me’

The author’s new book continues to play with layout to convey consciousness but spans a longer stretch of time than her debut

Myles Dungan: ‘Rural Ireland was riddled with class distinctions’

‘Agrarian insurgencies predated the struggle for independence. Most were far more prolonged, bloody and militarily effective than nationalist uprisings,’ says the historian

I Love You I Love You I Love You by Laura Dockrill: A ‘will they, won’t they, tale’, tinged with noughties nostalgia

The legacy of Dockrill’s young adult writing career is evident in chirpy proses that brims with exclamation marks, superlatives and capitalisations

Wild Geese by Soula Emmanuel: Remakes emigration and its impact on relationships in an invigorating shape

The novel sets out to dismantle the gender binary while also dissecting it, all the time riffing with energy and insight on nostalgia

David Nash wins Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize

Books newsletter: a roundup of the latest news and preview of Saturday’s pages

Chris Whitaker: ‘I sometimes wonder if the road I went down was linked to this violent act that happened when I was a kid’

A chance discovery in a library helped Whitaker overcome the trauma of a brutal stabbing and set him on the path to becoming a writer

Massacre in the Clouds: it is a fine work and will go some way to restoring this incident to the mainstream of history

The title is a pointed correction of the misnomer ‘the battle above the clouds’, by which the slaughter was known at the time

Summer reading: 21 great books for the holidays

This list has something for everyone with books covering dystopian realities, historical settings, criminal capers and familiar places

Soula Emmanuel wins SoA award

Books newsletter: a preview of Saturday’s pages and round-up of the latest news

John McGahern Prize for debut Irish fiction 2023 shortlist revealed

Prof Shovlin said, ‘Five years feels something like maturity for the prize and we were delighted to see, once again, a very strong field’

Liz Nugent up for top crime prize

Books newsletter: a wrap of the latest news and a previee of Saturday’s pages

Reeling in the Queers by Páraic Kerrigan: a reminder of the stigma and violence gay people faced

This book is as much a celebration of queer joy, as it is an insight into the transgression, trauma and tragedy that shaped queer Ireland over the past fifty years

Maggie O’Farrell: Contemporary Critical Perspectives reveal links between O’Farrell and the Irish diaspora

The editor of the volume, novelist Elaine Canning, has created the first comprehensive guide to O’Farrell’s writings, incorporating the responses of reviewers and a wide-ranging interview with the author herself

Walled in by Hate. The Friends and Enemies of Kevin O’Higgins: balance, honesty and humanity

O’Higgins was demonised by many who opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty that established the State

June’s YA fiction: magical realism grounded by sharp observations about teenage social dynamics

At one point Elk notes the gift of being ‘left alone’ at school: ‘I learned pretty quickly that I could be myself and get away with it’

Annie West archives acquired by TCD and NLI

Books newsletter: a preview of Saturday’s pages; Colm Tóibín to do one-off Dingle Lit event

The End of Everything by Victor Davis Hanson: Splendid and compulsively readable despite one weakness

Magisterial accounts of four cataclysmic case studies make this a must for anyone with an interest in ancient and premodern history

Mouthing by Orla Mackey: An engrossing and adept work of fiction about a rural Irish community like any other

In her debut novel, Mackey keeps moving the goalposts in delightfully wicked fashion for readers to catch up

Willy Vlautin: ‘I can’t quit alcohol because of my nerves. I’ve never been strong enough to not have that in my back pocket’

The writer’s latest novel The Horse is his way of trying to figure out his own long-running battle with the bottle

Listowel honours President, McKeon and Meehan

Encore Award shortlist; Cairde and Echoes festival; Saturday’s books pages; Little Island expands

All the Rage: Insightful, engaging and sometimes very funny account of women’s lives transformed through fashion

It’s an important reminder that fashion is anything but trivial

Sarah Crossan: ‘I wanted to write about abuse and love and how those things intersect’

Author Sarah Crossan on her pivot from teaching to writing and her latest books on forbidden love affairs and sex dolls

Irish writer wins Discoveries Writing Prize

Books newsletter: Michel Déon Prize shortlist; Stinging Fly/FBA Fiction Prize; walking tours

Caleb Azumah Nelson honoured

Books newsletter: Dylan Thomas Prize; Ondaatje Prize; Dalkey Book Festival; Elizabeth Longford Prize; James Tait Black Prizes; Gold Dagger Award; Listowel Writer’s Week; Dingle Lit short story awards; TikTok Book Awards; Saturday’s pages

Marian Keyes: ‘Transition is extremely uncomfortable…but everything eventually settles’

The Women’s Podcast with Róisín Ingle

UCD Festival’s literary highlights

Books newsletter: a preview of Saturday’s pages and a wrap of the latest news

Kerry Group Novel of the Year shortlist

Books newsletter: a wrap of the latest news and preview of tomorrow’s pages

He Used to Be Me: Heartbreaking debut about a fragile character on the margins of Mayo society

A profound, moving book that sneaks up on you and hits you with unexpected force

Sheila Armstrong on RSL Ondaatje Prize shortlist

Books newsletter: a wrap of the latest news and preview of tomorrow’s pages

Hubert Butler Essay Prize announced

Books newsletter: Borris and West Cork festival line-ups; Banagher Brontë Festival; Open Mic for Gaza; Write by the Sea; John McGahern exhibition; Commonwealth and Jhalak prizes

Cork World Book Fest turns 20

The duration of the Fest has also expanded thanks to the network of partners and collaborators that have been built over the years

PEN Heaney Prize launched

Books newsletter: Irish Times Eason offer is Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena, just €5.99

Wild Atlantic writers: the vibrant aesthetic of the Whole Wild World bus was ‘shaped with the input of children’

The Whole Wild World bus will ferry our finest children’s authors and illustrators along the west coast

Noel O’Regan on James Tait Black shortlist

Books newsletter: a round-up of the latest news and a preview of Saturday’s pages

Louise Kennedy wins Francophonie award

Books newsletter: a wrap of the latest news and a preview of tomorrow’s pages

Let’s talk about class: Four memoirs paint a shocking picture of how society treats the vulnerable

Reviews: Learning to Think by Tracy King; Newborn by Kerry Hudson; Strong Female Character by Fern Brady and Slum Boy by Juano Diaz

Anne Enright wins Writers’ Prize for Fiction

Books newsletter: a wrap of the latest news and preview of tomorrow’s pages

Cúirt festival lineup revealed

Books newsletter: a wrap of the latest news and a preview of tomorrow’s pages

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