Tag: New Island Books
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Book Review – Cocktail Bar by Norah Hoult
Cocktail Bar by Norah Hoult is a collection of short stories first published in 1950 and, while the language, and social and historical references, sometimes clearly place this in times gone by, there are aspects of the social commentary, and meditations on young love and community dynamics, that could be much more recent. And this…
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Book Review- I, Antigone by Carlo Gébler
It’s fair to say that most stories are never as straightforward as they might initially seem, and we seem to be living in a heyday of readapted and reimagined stories from antiquity, with a focus on revealing new perspectives and unleashing unheard, or even silenced, voices. Inevitably, the female voice is now often placed centre…
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Book Review – Wunderland by Caitríona Lally
Wunderland by Caitríona Lally is a wonderfully conjured portrait of two siblings, each with their own quirks and each struggling with life in their own way. Roy has been swiftly and quietly exiled to Germany, after some rumoured scandal back home in Ireland, to work in Hamburg’s miniature model railway world. Gert, one of his…
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Interview – One Dublin One Book 2022 – Nora by Nuala O’Connor
One Dublin One Book is an annual initiative, celebrating reading for pleasure, which encourages everyone to read the same book during the month of April. A Dublin City Council initiative, led by Dublin City Libraries, the chosen book is traditionally a book connected in some way with the capital city and, to complement this synchronised…
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Book Review – Nora by Nuala O’Connor
Nora: A Love Story of Nora Barnacle and James Joyce by Nuala O’Connor is a life story – the life that Nora and ‘her Jim’ shared from their ‘first time to walk out together’ on June 16th 1904 – propelled along by the deep love that they held for each other, despite the many hardships…
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Book Review – A Quiet Tide by Marianne Lee
The fisherman sidled up to her on the quay. ‘You’re Miss Hutchins, the plant lady from Ballylickey.’ A Quiet Tide, the debut novel by Marianne Lee, takes us back in time to the early 1800s, immersing us in an intimate and compelling fictionalised account of the life of Ellen Hutchins, Ireland’s first female botanist. After…
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Book Review – Pure Gold by John Patrick McHugh
That summer we lit fires. Terry and I. (Bonfire) Although already a seasoned writer of short stories featured in literary journals and magazines, Pure Gold is John Patrick McHugh’s first published collection. The stories are all set on an imagined island off the west coast of Ireland. Referred to as ‘the Island’ throughout, this already…
The Resting Willow 