Book news, reviews and recommendations
I’ve long had a penchant for Irish writing but either that’s becoming more pronounced or there are even more fine writers being published from that country. Whichever it is, that was what drew me to Noel O’Regan’s Though the Bodies Fall set on a stretch of Kerry headland which has been a suicide black spot …
Though the Bodies Fall by Noel O’Regan: Mother’s little helper Read More »
I spent quite some time dithering about whether to put my hand up for Lauren Mackenzie’s The Couples. The premise seemed a wee bit tacky: three couples go away together, shedding their domestic responsibilities, get wasted and embark on a game of partner swapping. What swung it for me was Mackenzie’s screenwriting credentials and Stinging …
The Couples by Lauren Mackenzie: A grown up Sally Rooney Read More »
Colin Walsh’s Kala was the subject of the kind of prepublication brouhaha that usually puts me off plus it’s a thriller but Walsh is a Stinging Fly contributor and it’s published by one of my favourite publishers which was enough to make me want to read it. Set in an Irish seaside town, Walsh’s novel …
Kala by Colin Walsh: Secrets and lies in small town Ireland Read More »
I was delighted to spot Sheila Armstrong’s first novel in the publishing schedules having been so impressed with her short story collection, How to Gut a Fish. That had a touch of the surreal about it which I half expected from Falling Animals, given it’s slightly disconcerting, rather lovely cover, but Armstrong’s novel is not …
Falling Animals by Sheila Armstrong: For those in peril on the sea Read More »
Having enjoyed Sarah Gilmartin’s exploration of grief and family dynamics, Dinner Party, a couple of years ago I was keen to read Service. Even more so when I found it was set in a restaurant. Gilmartin’s second novel follows a celebrity chef faced with a reckoning, his wife who has chosen not to examine his …
Service by Sarah Gilmartin: Three sides to a story Read More »
I would have been keen to read Nicole Flattery’s first novel anyway, having enjoyed her excellent short story collection, Show Them a Good Time, but its premise is intriguing. In 1967, two young high school students helped transcribe tapes of conversations and monologues made by Andy Warhol’s coterie on which he based A Novel. Flattery’s …
Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery: ‘I could become someone of my own invention’ Read More »
Donal Ryan is one of those authors whose name makes my heart sing when I see it in the publishing schedules. The Queen of Dirt Island popped up quite some time before it was due to be published and I snapped it up on NetGalley. Opening with a beginning and an end, it follows four …
The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan: ‘Time will wind its own sweet way’ Read More »
The Night Interns is oncologist Austin Duffy’s third novel. It takes us back to his workplace, the setting for his debut, This Living and Immortal Thing, following three surgical interns, not long graduated from medical school, working the night shift in a large hospital where they’re expected to avoid calling senior medical staff at all …
Almost exactly two years ago I reviewed Susannah Dickey’s debut, Tennis Lessons, which championed the value of friendship through two young women, one painfully awkward saved by the other. I enjoyed it very much so was eager to read Common Decency which picks up some of her first novel’s themes through the story of Lily, …
Common Decency by Susannah Dickey: A tale of two women Read More »
Irish writer Sheila Armstrong’s debut collection How to Gut a Fish came with a glowing endorsement from Roddy Doyle which was part of the lure for me; that and the hint of the surreal in its blurb. The collection comprises fourteen stories, none more than twenty pages long, each very different from the other. As …
How to Gut a Fish by Sheila Armstrong: A striking, idiosyncratic collection Read More »
I started seeing Sarah Gilmartin’s Dinner Party in my Twitter timeline a good eight or nine months before it was due to be published, something that tends to put me off more often than not, but I liked the sound of this novel that begins with the titular gathering then explores the fraught family dynamics …