Tag: Irish fiction
-
Book Review – Kala by Colin Walsh
We’re perched on our bikes at the top of the hill. There’s a turning melt of sky above us. The town’s glittering below. We’re fifteen and it’s the summer of our lives so Kinlough is gathering itself up into the moment with us – the whole town’s pure responsive to our energies. The year is…
-
Book Review – Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann
The watchers below pulled in their breath all at once. The air felt suddenly shared. The man above was a word they seemed to know, though they had not heard it before. Out he went. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann is a bold and vibrant novel exploring the lives of eight very…
-
Book Review – Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy is, at its heart, a story about an ill-fated love affair but its beauty and strength is that it becomes so much more than that, painting a rich and vibrant portrait of a whole community beyond our two lovers. This story is about an unexpected and forbidden love between young Catholic…
-
Book Review – The Colony by Audrey Magee
It’s the summer of 1979, and an English painter and a French linguist both travel to a small island off the West Coast of Ireland where Irish remains the primary spoken language. What follows is a beautifully written and layered exploration of the idyllic and mythologised view they each hold of this place, versus the…
-
Book Review – I Wanted To Be Close To You by Katie Oliver
I Wanted To Be Close To You by Katie Oliver is a collection of darkly humorous and sharply written short stories exploring the female experience in particular, written at a snappy pace that perfectly suits their short length. In fact, these stories are so short – some merely a page long – that they emerge…
-
Book Review – How to Gut a Fish by Sheila Armstrong
How to Gut a Fish by Sheila Armstrong is a strange and sharp collection of short stories, that packs so much into a small book. The stories are so different, the main unifying element being a foray into the unsettling and the jarring. There are stories where things may or may not have happened; or…
-
Book Review – The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan is a sharply spun tale from an unnamed Irish town, resonating with familiar societal elements yet crafted with care so that each story gains unique significance and emotional depth. Told from an array of different perspectives – men, women and children, of all ages, backgrounds and circumstances – this…
-
Book Review – The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan
The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan is a tender and poignant multigenerational story about the Aylward women from a small, rural village in Co. Tipperary, Ireland. These are women who have known heartbreak, tragedy and judgement, and yet they love so fiercely, fight on in life, and hold each other up; and it’s…
-
Book Review – Savage Her Reply by Deirdre Sullivan
We are ourselves, and we are also stories people tell. Savage Her Reply by Deirdre Sullivan is a reimagining of the classic Irish fairy tale The Children of Lir. When Aífe’s imposed marriage to her dead sister’s widower, King Lir, dissolves into a state of unhappiness, Aífe enacts a cruel revenge by condemning her stepchildren…
-
Book Review – The Raptures by Jan Carson
I think it’s safe to say that Jan Carson is now one of my go-to authors from this island; I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by her so far, The Fire Starters in particular, and with The Raptures she’s done it again with a story that is gripping, thought-provoking and downright enjoyable to read, despite the…
The Resting Willow 