The stuff of nightmaresFiction: All the lies, all the horror, all the guilt, all the crueltySat Nov 24 2007 - 00:00
An Irishwoman's DiaryIt was late. The all-night car park had in fact closed at 1am and our station wagon was locked in. We had to waitMon Nov 12 2007 - 00:00
A 'Buddenbrooks' for the 21st centuryFiction No one remembers as relentlessly as family; no one fights as viciously; no feuds simmer as long; no memory is tougher…Sat Nov 10 2007 - 00:00
US titans in running for international prizeSeveral of the most interesting writers currently at work such as Britain's Martin Amis feature in the long list for the 2008…Tue Nov 06 2007 - 00:00
Life and death on the marginsFICTION The spell cast by Alice Sebold's new novel begins in the very first sentence: "When all is said and done, killing my…Sat Oct 27 2007 - 01:00
Stalked by their historyFiction: We live in terrible times - but then, times have been terrible for quite a while now, almost forever in fact, writes…Sat Oct 20 2007 - 01:00
Coming of age while the world falls apartFiction: May 1918: war has become a way of lifeSat Sept 29 2007 - 01:00
Moving celebration ends MacNeice forumA long avenue leads to an elegant 19th century church, set on a steep, panoramically inspiring rise, the famous "high ground". …Mon Sept 17 2007 - 01:00
Artist of exile and lossLouis MacNeice Centenary 1907-1963: As the celebration of the great poet's life and work continues in Belfast, Literary Correspondent…Sat Sept 15 2007 - 01:00
A life spent watchingFiction A small boy witnesses the brutal killing of his parentsSat Sept 01 2007 - 01:00
A wand and Muggle type pyjamasI was wearing my favourite Muggle type pyjamas as a gesture towards atmosphereMon Jul 23 2007 - 01:00
A European rule-breaker in AustraliaFiction: A writer sits on a plane watching a young womanSat Jul 14 2007 - 01:00
Fair insights into ToveFiction Love and work are the themes of this gentle narrative consisting of scenes from a life as experienced through a friendship…Sat Jul 07 2007 - 01:00
A sackful of whimsy fuelled by meadFiction: History holds all the answers; for some it might even offer the best chance of escapeSat Jun 30 2007 - 01:00
The last word on a Nazi boyhoodMemoir: Layers of incident, routine and monumental, make up any lifeSat Jun 16 2007 - 01:00
Chinua Achebe wins Man Booker international prizeNIGERIA: One of Africa's most enduring writers, Nigerian master Chinua Achebe, has been awarded the second Man Booker International…Wed Jun 13 2007 - 01:00
An Irishwoman's DiaryBach. Always Bach, it always begins with Bach. Ask most musicians, and the answer is usually the sameTue Jun 05 2007 - 01:00
Ambivalent reflections in a wartime hall of mirrorsFiction Osewoudt is small, insignificant, blond, smooth-skinned, looks a bit like a girl and, thanks to his high-pitched voice…Sat Jun 02 2007 - 01:00
Getting inside messed-up mindsFiction It is all too easy to make mistakes, and all too difficult to correct themSat May 26 2007 - 01:00
The war in the valleysFiction It is well travelled territory; the story of the hapless maiden soon to become a maid no moreSat May 19 2007 - 01:00
Rich, wonderful exercises in not getting yourself killedFiction: Old Moses Tyler the bootlegger wasn't much of a fatherSat May 12 2007 - 01:00
Is this the best ofthe US?Fiction Where has a decade gone? Has so much time dribbled away since Granta published its inaugural Best of Young American …Sat May 05 2007 - 01:00
Is this the best ofthe US?Fiction Where has a decade gone? Has so much time dribbled away since Granta published its inaugural Best of Young American …Sat May 05 2007 - 01:00
Surviving in the wreckageFiction Don DeLillo's new novel is the finest literary achievement yet inspired by 9/11Sat Apr 21 2007 - 01:00
A cool, complacent, unconvincing voiceFiction: Few writers do voice better than Graham Swift, one of Britain's most consistently original writersSat Apr 14 2007 - 01:00
Two Booker winners make Impac listOne of Ireland's leading playwrights, Sebastian Barry, is the only Irish writer to feature on the 2007 International Impac Dublin…Thu Apr 05 2007 - 01:00
Limp gags that pack a punchFiction: The chance, or make that hope, of earning money by picking English strawberries brings a mixed group of foreign workers…Sat Mar 24 2007 - 00:00
Shot on a continuous loopFiction: Becoming a soldier was not enough for Alfred Day. It was not a job he was looking for, it was deeper than thatSat Mar 17 2007 - 00:00
An apocalypse without convictionFiction Post-apocalypse America is the new theme. Writers have taken the events of 9/11 as a rallying cry of sortsSat Mar 10 2007 - 00:00
Third person singularFiction Trapped on the family holiday, a young girl, aged 15, not quite 16, witnesses the closing acts of the marriage only …Sat Mar 03 2007 - 00:00
Kiely dies and with him goes a wealth of anecdotesBen Kiely died yesterday and with him, goes a wealth of anecdotes and tales.Sat Feb 10 2007 - 00:00
Young Hitler defeats MailerFiction: History revisited; not only is the story already written, there is the chance of explaining, perhaps even understanding…Sat Feb 10 2007 - 00:00
Young Hitler defeats MailerFiction: History revisited; not only is the story already written, there is the chance of explaining, perhaps even understanding…Sat Feb 10 2007 - 00:00
Kiely dies and with him goes a wealth of anecdotesBen Kiely died yesterday and with him, goes a wealth of anecdotes and tales.Sat Feb 10 2007 - 00:00
Salmon sacrificed to the political angleFiction A man has a wish, he wants to see salmon leaping - and being caughtSat Feb 03 2007 - 00:00
The devil's own luckFiction: Friendship, and far more importantly, the complexities of honour, a sensation experienced by many if understood by …Sat Jan 27 2007 - 00:00
Tough talking about sexShort Stories: Sexuality; its doubts, its excitement, its egotistical self-affirmation, dominate these poised, assured, if collectively…Sat Jan 20 2007 - 00:00
Heaney wins TS Eliot prize for poetryEvery artist begins a journey but few have sustained it as eloquently and as doggedly as Seamus Heaney who has won this year'…Tue Jan 16 2007 - 00:00
Less than epicFiction Everything, including several kitchen sinks, contribute to the immense, if less than epic cartoon that amounts to Thomas…Sat Jan 13 2007 - 00:00
Matters of life and death in modern AustraliaFiction: Contemporary Australia lives and breathes, shudders, groans and even scratches without a trace of inhibition throughout…Sat Jan 06 2007 - 00:00
Turner show whips up new year stormAs silent as a church, the long narrow room again displays its treasures. The visitors arrive and study them closelySat Dec 30 2006 - 00:00
Young, different and desperate to belongFiction: Carmen Laforet's Nada could have been written in the 19th century, or sometime last week. But it wasn'tSat Dec 30 2006 - 00:00
Tales of mysterious imaginationFiction: Christmas has come early in the guise of this wonderful collection by a writer better known to children than to those…Sat Dec 09 2006 - 00:00
Bored and betrayed by JudasFiction: Nothing is sacred, not even, judging by New Zealander CK Stead's unconvincing new novel, the story of Jesus Christ.Sat Dec 02 2006 - 00:00
In the court of the bitter kingFiction: Our hero is a disgruntled editor and his story is one of straightforward conventional disappointment with life - his…Sat Nov 25 2006 - 00:00
In memory of an unknown brotherMemoir Memory, its regrets, its ambivalence and its multiple confusions, is beautifully evoked in this haunting memoir by German…Sat Nov 18 2006 - 00:00
Ghosts of the Vietnam warFiction: Survival creates its own hell: guilt. Rodney Falk and his brother Bob both went to fight in VietnamSat Nov 11 2006 - 00:00
Former Booker winners feature on Impac longlistBoth of South Africa's former Nobel literature laureates and several other former Booker Prize winners, including John Banville…Tue Nov 07 2006 - 00:00
Ponderous odyssey of the damnedFiction: It is over. Nothing remains. Dead bodies, dead trees, an empty sky, a deserted landscapeSat Nov 04 2006 - 00:00
An odyssey into oddnessFiction: An ageing suitor falls to his knees before a young Greek woman and makes his intentions clear - she is to be his wife…Sat Oct 28 2006 - 01:00
