Book Reviews

Hybrid work aims to create an enigmatic portrait of the French author

Plus new works by Rosemary Hennigan; Catriona Ward; Claire Coughlan; and James Wolff

Trinity College Dublin cleaner’s beautifully written memoir is no rags-to-riches story but a book about motherhood, choice and the constant renegotiation of a woman’s life

The 60 authors in this ‘career retrospective’ include Claire Keegan, Anne Enright, Maeve Binchy and Sebastian Barry

Louise O’Neill’s past novels have demonstrated a capacity to disturb; here she has opted to write something more superficially entertaining

A novel of doubleness, memory, and the uneasy inheritance of love

Scottish writer’s novel is propelled by an anarchic energy whose literary style approaches the quality of a troubled dream

New anthology brings together 33 voices exploring access, ambition and the cost of getting on in publishing

Practical advice on how we can reconnect with nature and our community, and tackle hunger and poverty without destroying the planet

Clues to its existence abound, from the works of Bowen to Behan

Set in Northern Ireland, Dickey manages to skilfully include the brutalising legacy of the Troubles while simultaneously keeping it in the background of this novel

Carson’s forays into the strange borderlands of Lough Neagh’s waters give the novel a weird brilliance, like Kevin Barry without the swearing

Function of this genre is to sublimate what Nietzsche called ressentiment, the rage that arises from a feeling of powerlessness

A timely contemplation, in a series of academic essays, of the strategies of war, international relations and nuclear deterrence

Love Magic Power Danger Bliss: Yoko Ono and the Avant-Garde Diaspora; A Hard Day’s Night; The Evolution of American Film Music, 1960s-1990s

YA fiction reads for April from Caryl Lewis, Méabh Collins, Derek Landy, Susie Nadler and a debut from Stephen Daly

The writer on literary reputation, emigration and ‘the crushing weight of being the only gay in the village’

Country she depicts is not romanticised but simply lived in: a world of small houses, strained marriages and worried parents

Authorial relish and exuberance are apparent on every page of this short story collection, with contributions from Naoise Dolan, Sarah Maria Griffin and more

Despite their defeat in two historic strikes, the British miners’ struggle raised huge questions for society

The third novel in French’s Cal Hooper series is an immersive read that demands to be savoured

An accomplished playwright, performer and essayist, McDonagh brings to her debut novel the authority of lived experience

Mrie is remarkably brave in her documentation of Syria, its people and what she did after she realised she was unable to keep living in the way that was expected of her

Ronan McGreevy’s new book edits 22 hours of private recordings to reveal the inner workings of the former taoiseach’s mind

Novel taps into a passion that has set generations alight - a sport that binds communities and creates heroes

Reviews of Crowd Voltage; Uncertain Passage; The Posthumous Book of Shahrazad; and the Collected Poems of Wendy Cope

Retired cardiologist’s dedication is evident but the tone of this book is at times problematic

Equal parts Flann O’Brien and Dan Brown, EL is a novel of impressively epic sweep

Novel has a meandering quality and a subtlety in terms of what’s actually happening that proves a bit too subtle

So engaging it will be read in one sitting

New Yorker writer’s drive to get to the truth again brings impetus to ask ‘just one more thing’

A number of the stories in John O’Donnell’s collection focus on people who run foul of the law, an area in which the author has expertise

Maybe Minnesota helps make this writer great

Reviews of works by Brian Heffernan; June O’Sullivan; and David Annand

Part of the game of Nonesuch is to restore the reality of the second World War to a Narnian story of magic

Memoir expresses an attitude of observation that rhymes quietly with poetry, a revelation of a writer and her experience

Novel is filled with a street lyricism that mines masculinity in a manner reminiscent of Jim Carroll or Robert McLiam Wilson

A once insular Wexford community casts its gaze outwards as it prepares to welcome JFK

New short story collection ranges over territories familiar to Tóibín’s readers: Wexford, Catalonia, Argentina and the US

A nightmarish cityscape that is identifiably Hong Kong; a classic of oppression in Iran; a celebration of queer lives; and a stark exploration of Albert Speer