Tree Hunting by Paul Wood: a supremely fascinating book that seeks to channel our frequently unarticulated love for trees
Subtitled 1,000 Trees to Find in Britain and Ireland’s Towns and Cities, Wood’s work is a kind of illumination, and an exercise in mindfulness
Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane: A potentially transformative vision
With little hope that environmental disaster can be staved off, Macfarlane finds grounds for optimism
I Hear You by Paul McVeigh: A vivid and memorable collection of stories
The Belfast author’s writing demonstrates an ongoing commitment to working-class and queer representation
Beartooth by Callan Wink: Spare and remarkable
A dual consciousness – of the sublime and exalted nature of the universe, and of its utter dispassion – flows through this novel
The Naming of the Birds by Paraic O’Donnell: Brilliantly compelling
In this police procedural the period detail is perfectly evoked, the dialogue crackling with wit
The Tree Hunters’ Glasnevin focus is gratifying but it barely glances at the calamities created by colonialist adventurers
Thomas Pakenham’s book simultaneously succeeds and fails; Richard Shimell’s Trees in Winter is emotionally resonant and impactful
Republic: Britain’s Revolutionary Decade 1649-1660 by Alice Hunt – England’s brief flirtation with a royalty-free constitution
History of Cromwell’s experiment with republicanism is restricted to England and debating chambers of London
Ulster 1912-1922: How the Treaty negotiators lost control of the Irish Border amid high pressure and British duplicity
Cormac Moore’s essay on the establishment of Northern Ireland is among the strongest in this collection
A Benedict Kiely Reader: Drink to the Bird and Selected Essays review - Words on the importance of place
Wisdom and deftness were tools of writer whose subjects ranged from the lyrical to the sectarian
Ghosts of a Family review: Superlative account of the sectarian McMahon murders
Edward Burke investigates the 1922 massacre in the context of collusion and archives reluctant to yield truth about the North
A Cold Eye by Carlo Gébler: A vivid and arresting diary as memoir
This book is structured as a compendium of diary entries, with one selected each of 35 years
The Boundless River. Stories from the Realm of the Rhine: Exploring a living entity
‘The Rhine, like all rivers, consists not only of the water flowing between its banks but of every part of its vast drainage basin’
Mother Naked: Dazzling work of speculative fiction set in 15th century
Glen James Brown uses his mastery of medieval idiom to weave a tale of fear, violence and class tensions
The Voyageur by Paul Carlucci: Vivid tale of body experiments in 19th-century Canada
Physical reality all too often masked by history is dragged out in gory details not for the squeamish in Paul Carlucci's debut novel
Broken Archangel: The Tempestuous Lives of Roger Casement review
Roland Philipps explores contradictions, complexity and character of an Irish hero in this compelling biography