Eileen Battersby’s favourite sporting booksFrom boxing to racing and from fact to fiction, a personal selection of the greatest stories about sportFri Mar 24 2017 - 11:26
The Kingdom review: The gospel according to Emmanuel CarrèreThe maverick French writer reimagines Christianity’s beginnings in a madly magical novelSat Mar 18 2017 - 04:00
Derek Walcott: exuberant poet in love with the magic of wordsThe Nobel laureate was funny, explosively opinionated, playful and occasionally outrageousFri Mar 17 2017 - 19:02
Man Booker International 2017 longlist includes Amos Oz and banned writerFour potential Nobel literature laureates are in the running for the €57,000 prizeWed Mar 15 2017 - 10:17
I believe my father was murdered by Turkish secret policeThe daughter of Sabahattin Ali, author of surprise bestseller Madonna in a Fur Coat, recalls the day he diedMon Mar 13 2017 - 06:00
A Natural review: the agony but not the ecstasy of a sporting lifeRoss Raisin’s slow-moving third novel struggles to portray a terrified young soccer playerSat Mar 11 2017 - 06:00
Eimear McBride on Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction longlistIrish author’s ‘The Lesser Bohemians’ faces competition from Atwood, Proulx and othersWed Mar 08 2017 - 08:59
Exit West review: A migrant couple’s search for an open doorA brief, polemical fable that puts the reality of the refugee crisis into sharp reliefSat Mar 04 2017 - 04:00
Casey Affleck deserves the Oscar, not to be hounded over sex allegationsDoes one have to be without sin, stain or misdemeanour to earn an Oscar?Sun Feb 26 2017 - 13:09
Memoirs of a Polar Bear review: an animal for rememberingYoko Tawada’s whimsical ursine family saga expresses a powerful sense of justiceSat Feb 25 2017 - 06:00
The Refugees review: Insight into belonging without losing identityViet Thanh Nguyen’s debut collection is a timely look at lives of outsiders in AmericaSat Feb 18 2017 - 04:00
Book lovers: Eileen Battersby’s Valentine’s Day readsFrom Persuasion to Wuthering Heights, The Dead to Le Grand Meaulnes, make a date with one of these classicsTue Feb 14 2017 - 13:03
The Last Wolf review: an intoxicating adventureLászló Krasznahorkai is the undisputed laureate of our deranged, vulnerable epochSat Feb 11 2017 - 00:00
Kruso review: A fall from grace before the fall of the wallPoet Lutz Seiler’s debut novel is an exciting, expansive work of German literature, writes Eileen BattersbySat Feb 04 2017 - 06:00
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson review: more winsome than profoundDespite the obvious thematic comparisons, Woodson’s prose lacks the daunting power of Toni Morrison’s sophisticated lyricismThu Feb 02 2017 - 12:00
Ashland & Vine review: John Burnside’s new novel fails to convinceScottish poet’s foray into post-second World War US history is disappointingly contrivedSat Jan 28 2017 - 05:00
From 1984 to Brave New World: six of the best books to read in Trumpian timesThere has been a surge in sales of George Orwell’s 1984 following Donald Trump’s election as US presidentWed Jan 25 2017 - 16:41
The End of Eddy review: Life in a northern homophobic townÉdouard Louis’s intensely autobiographical novel spares no one, including the reader, writes Eileen BattersbySat Jan 21 2017 - 05:00
The Golden Legend review: creation and destruction in PakistanBeauty is confronted by terrorism in Nadeem Aslam’s certain Man Booker contenderSat Jan 14 2017 - 05:00
Maeve Brennan: loneliness elevated to an art formEileen Battersby reviews The Long-Winded Lady, Maeve Brennan’s New Yorker sketches, as part of our extensive coverage marking today's centenary of her birthFri Jan 06 2017 - 05:00
Eileen Battersby: When Anthony Cronin dismissed me as an idiotComplete and formidable literary man whose intelligence never overpowered his artWed Dec 28 2016 - 20:17
Life Begins on Friday review: well-spun Dickensian Christmas yarnRomanian author Ioana Parvulescu has crafted a rare delight full of old world charmSat Dec 24 2016 - 05:00
Newgrange revelations do not deter solstice-watchersPilgrims to the Co Meath monument are tough and seemingly impervious to theoriesWed Dec 21 2016 - 15:13
Eileen Battersby’s favourite fiction and nonfiction of 2016The year’s best novels, collections, memoirs and translations range around the worldSat Dec 17 2016 - 06:00
The Seamstress and the Wind review: Comic mayhem at Argentina’s dark heartCésar Aira’s fantastical nightmare is an elegy for the Disappeared, writes Eileen BattersbySat Dec 10 2016 - 05:00
Three Loves, One Death review: Freedom as a terrifying burdenThe Slovenian writer Evald Flisar plays with light and dark, the fantastical and the believableSat Dec 03 2016 - 05:00
Of All That Ends review: A fitting final farewell from Günter GrassNobel Prize-winning author’s posthumous collection of mediations is witty and touchingSat Nov 26 2016 - 05:00
William Trevor made the ordinary and familiar, new and shockingTrevor was a world class writer who chronicled the lives of the forgotten, the despairing losers, the innocent and the devious, the lonely and the unlovedMon Nov 21 2016 - 20:01
William Trevor: ‘I am a fiction writer. It is what I had to do’From the archive: If ever a writer deserved the Nobel Prize in Literature, it is William Trevor. Eileen Battersby sits down with him in Dublin to talk about his life and workMon Nov 21 2016 - 16:19
A timely literary road trip around the worldThe 147 titles on the International Dublin Literary Award longlist are a treasure trove of great readingMon Nov 21 2016 - 15:00
Seven Irish writers on longlist for world’s richest literary prizeJohn Banville, Kevin Barry, Sara Baume, Anne Enright, Louise O’Neill, Nuala O’Connor and Edna O’Brien on 147-strong longlistMon Nov 21 2016 - 11:00
Still the Same Man review: a life spent seethingJon Bilbao’s original, caustic revenge tragedy shows that everyone has their limitsSat Nov 19 2016 - 05:00
Leonard Cohen’s Yeats pilgrimage: how the singer was drawn to LissadellOwners of historic Sligo house recall the dream concerts the singer played in 2010Sat Nov 12 2016 - 06:00
The Evenings review: A masterwork of comic pathosIt should be acknowledged as one of the finest studies of youthful malaise ever writtenSat Nov 12 2016 - 05:00
War dead honoured in Remembrance Day concertProgramme dedicated to memory of those killed on the Somme and in Easter RisingFri Nov 11 2016 - 20:00
An idiot’s guide to winning the US presidencyHow to win the US presidency in 10 easy steps – Step one: Aim for confusion...Thu Nov 10 2016 - 18:13
Eileen Battersby: How can America begin to heal?Where to now after one of the most corrosive US presidential elections in historyWed Nov 09 2016 - 08:42
Miss Jane by Brad Watson review: Making strange in hardscrabble MississippiBrad Watson’s novel of a young woman who never gives up shimmers with quiet humanitySat Nov 05 2016 - 05:00
Translations bring to light Dutch women writers from different erasBetrayal and revenge drive powerful novels by Ida Simons and Wytske VersteegSat Nov 05 2016 - 00:00
A Horse Walks into a Bar review: a polemic of unusual powerDavid Grossman’s novel about a stand-up comedian is shocking, raw and eloquentSat Oct 29 2016 - 05:00
Man Booker prize: Paul Beatty wins with The SelloutAuthor wins for satire on race in the US and becomes first American to win prizeTue Oct 25 2016 - 22:13
The Visiting Privilege review: Living in a downward spiralJoy Williams’s latest infrequent collection is so good we hardly know where to start raving firstSat Oct 22 2016 - 05:00
His Bloody Project review: In cold blood in the HighlandsGraeme Macrae Burnet’s Booker nominee is a bloody thrilling true-life crime storySat Oct 15 2016 - 05:00
Bob Dylan’s Nobel: Better to have gone to a ‘complete unknown’?If the academy wanted to honour a music icon, Paul Simon would be a better choiceThu Oct 13 2016 - 19:08
Nightmare in Berlin by Hans Fallada review: adrift in a country out of controlAllan Blunden’s brilliant translation conveys the turmoil of a strange, extraordinary novel about a post-war Germany faced with the evils perpetrated under the NazisSat Oct 08 2016 - 05:00
The Underground Railroad review: The run of her lifeEileen Battersby says Colson Whitehead’s gripping slavery epic should be read by everyoneSat Oct 01 2016 - 05:00
