Thirty Days review: Alphonse and the human face of FlandersAnnelies Verbeke’s fearless, intelligent novel follows the fortunes of a kindly decoratorSat Sept 24 2016 - 05:00
Pianist Angela Hewitt begins Bach Odyssey in IrelandClassical legend’s first concert kicks off all 141 of Bach’s solo works for keyboardSun Sept 18 2016 - 06:00
The Hungry Grass by Richard Power review: last days of a doomed everymanThe priest at the centre of this reissue is one of Irish literature’s most memorable creationsSat Sept 17 2016 - 05:00
Man Booker Prize: two-time winner Coetzee left off shortlistMadeleine Thien now favourite with symphonic masterwork Do Not Say We Have NothingTue Sept 13 2016 - 19:11
Man Booker shortlist: big books, big disappointmentsMan Booker selection pales in comparison to international stablemate - this is where the titles of real quality can be found, lost in translation as it wereTue Sept 13 2016 - 17:41
The Unseen review: Red sky at mourning for a Norwegian fishing familyEileen Battersby found Roy Jacobsen’s book to be as blunt as it is subtle, and one of the best novel she’s ever readSat Sept 10 2016 - 05:00
The Schooldays of Jesus review: the meaning of lifePossibly post-apocalyptic narrative preoccupied with impromptu and relentless philosophical discourseSat Aug 27 2016 - 05:00
The Golden Age review: A tough, intelligent story of displacementJoan London’s characters attempt to shape a communal present as Australia absorbs the effects of the polio epidemic that terrorised parents in the 1950sSat Aug 20 2016 - 05:00
Thomas Barr’s near-miss ranks as one of Ireland’s finestWaterford athlete was one stride away from bronze in Olympic 400m hurdles finalFri Aug 19 2016 - 01:00
Eileen Battersby on a bid to halt demolition of Casement’s schoolPlans to build four townhouses on site of school 1916 patriot believed to have attendedMon Aug 15 2016 - 01:00
Angel of Oblivion by Maja Haderlap: A childhood haunted by historyHaderlap’s novel of growing up in rural Carinthia is part autobiography, part memoirSat Aug 13 2016 - 03:18
Madonna in a Fur Coat review: What keeps Raif breathingPublished to a muted response in Turkey in the 1940s, was revived there more than three years ago and has remained a bestseller ever sinceSat Aug 13 2016 - 03:00
The Transmigration of Bodies review: A playful slide into the infernoThe second in a trilogy of novels by Yuri Herrera startles with its topicality about Mexico-US border tensionsSat Aug 06 2016 - 06:13
Roger Casement: A romantic defender of the oppressedOn the centenary of his tragic execution, it is worth recalling the rebel’s adventurous lifeWed Aug 03 2016 - 01:00
Eileen Battersby: 10 names forever etched in Olympic loreDelany, Spitz and Korbut are among the athletes who achieved sporting immortality at the GamesMon Aug 01 2016 - 01:00
Divorce Is in the Air review: Sick degrees of separationThe hero of this nastily funny Spanish novel is a whinger on the verge of a nervous breakdownSat Jul 30 2016 - 05:00
Man Booker prize 2016: giant Coetzee towers over longlistIrish authors lose out as four debuts included on 13-strong listWed Jul 27 2016 - 12:41
Irish equestrian talent feted everywhere but hereShow jumping seen as minority interest despite considerable contribution to economyMon Jul 25 2016 - 06:56
The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones by Charles Neider reviewA classic western about Billy the Kid’s final days re-released on its 60th anniversarySat Jul 23 2016 - 00:23
Single refusal costs Ireland dearly as Italy takes Aga Khan TrophyIrish showjumping team performs well, but elegant Italian quartet prove class above restFri Jul 22 2016 - 22:18
The Low Voices by Manuel Rivas review: hits the high notesManuel Rivas’s beautifully translated memoir/novel brilliantly capture a time, a place and a familySat Jul 16 2016 - 05:56
Can Greg Broderick jump into gold at Rio Olympics?Ireland’s sole showjumper at next month’s Games is determined to produce his best in RioSat Jul 16 2016 - 01:00
The Encounter by Gabriela Adamesteanu review: search for an elusive homeA subtle but daring novel tells of a Romanian emigrant who can never returnSat Jul 09 2016 - 02:49
Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler review: Not close to taming Shakespeare’s classic textTyler’s twee updating of ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ is an ill-judged caperSat Jul 09 2016 - 01:55
War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans review: real, raw and powerfulThis is an important work about the first World War largely because of the material from which it drawsWed Jul 06 2016 - 13:46
The Last Days of Mankind by Karl Kraus: translations of an epic drama reviewedOn the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, two versions of a classic antiwar play – one by Irishman Patrick Healy, one by Fred Bridgham and Edward Timms – are well-timedSat Jul 02 2016 - 02:15
1914 by Jean Echenoz review: epic telling of the horrors of the Great WarBarely a novella in length, 1914 displays the authority of an historian and the humanity of a storytellerTue Jun 28 2016 - 20:00
Barkskins by Annie Proulx: a trite caper of eco-calamityAt more than 700 pages, Proulx’s polemical lament uses up a lot of wood pulpSat Jun 25 2016 - 02:38
Hearing Voices, Seeing Things by William Wall review: unsettling fictionsIn these 20 short stories, familiar themes – god, sex and death – are again made strangeSat Jun 18 2016 - 02:03
Our Young Man by Edmund White review: youthful beauty under threatNovel cleverly juxtaposes the meat-market fantasies of modelling with those of desireSat Jun 11 2016 - 02:00
Akhil Sharma interview : ‘It was difficult; all books are really hard’Winner of the International Dublin Literary Award speaks to Eileen BattersbyThu Jun 09 2016 - 13:58
International Dublin Literary Award won by Akhil Sharma’s Family LifeUnexpected win for second novel which cost author years of hardship and emotional stressThu Jun 09 2016 - 11:48
Ideal weather sees farmers rushing to make haylageA richer variation on hay must be cut, dried and quickly wrapped airtightMon Jun 06 2016 - 01:00
Nothing on Earth by Conor O’Callaghan: an original story, brilliantly toldConor O’Callaghan stamps his authority on this low-key but pitch-perfect novel, one of most impressive pieces of Irish fiction since Neil Jordan’s The Dream of a Beast in 1983Sat May 28 2016 - 00:48
Zero K review: Don DeLillo on death as we don’t know itNovelist Don DeLillo ponders the big unanswerable – mortality – in a speculative tale that is like a summation of his artistic visionSat May 21 2016 - 00:38
Otto Dix, artist on the front lineAlthough he created some of the most powerful anti-war images ever seen, the German artist maintained an ambivalence about the conflict he volunteered for and survivedWed May 18 2016 - 00:00
Han Kang’s ‘The Vegetarian’ wins Man Booker International PrizeKorean novelist’s beautiful and disturbing book renders the reader spellboundMon May 16 2016 - 21:53
Langrishe, Go Down by Aidan Higgins review: a modernist classicHalf a century on, Aidan Higgins’s debut novel remains bold, expressive and daringSat May 14 2016 - 00:24
Opera Theatre Company marks 30th year with La bohème tourPuccini melodrama set in 19th century Paris being sung in Italian with English surtitlesThu May 12 2016 - 14:58
David Attenborough: The force of nature at 90As he celebrates his birthday, we survey the life and work of the world's greatest documentarian - from boyhood fossil collecting, giving Monty Python their big break, to thousands of animal encountersFri May 06 2016 - 11:09
The Lamentations of Zeno review: glacial ground zeroBeautiful imagery dominates Ilija Trojanow’s wise, cunning little novel, sensitively translated from the GermanSat Apr 30 2016 - 00:51
Granta: New Irish Writing review: Cutting edge to elder statesmenThe selection mixes sublime examples with weaker pieces and a glaring omission or twoSat Apr 23 2016 - 01:29
Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue: tennis and treachery in the RenaissanceCaravaggio, Cortés and Anne Boleyn head a historical cast in this lively, freewheeling taleSat Apr 16 2016 - 00:14
Nothing lost in translation on Man Booker International listHigh class shortlist of six shows strength of work published in English translationThu Apr 14 2016 - 00:29
International Dublin Literary Award shortlist in review‘Jenny Erpenbeck should become the prize’s first German winner with ‘The End of Days’’Tue Apr 12 2016 - 00:01
Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent by Mircea Eliade review: a likeable portraitA Romanian schoolboy’s novel-cum-journal is funny, lively and defiantSat Apr 09 2016 - 00:55
The Bulgarian Truck by Dumitru Tsepeneag review: A dazzling mazeRarely has a postmodernist work been handled so engagingly as by this Romanian masterSat Apr 02 2016 - 00:31
Quiet Flows the Una review: A river runs through himThe majestic Una river becomes a metaphor for life – and death – in this delicate, haunting novel by a veteran of the Bosnian warSat Mar 26 2016 - 02:27
Escape Attempt review: others suffer for our artDeLillo and Ballard are two major influences on this unpretentious Spanish novel, which takes a humane look at the some of the nastier sides of human natureSat Mar 19 2016 - 03:30
