Few and Far Between by Jan Carson: compelling fiction is a bravura act of imagination Carson’s forays into the strange borderlands of Lough Neagh’s waters give the novel a weird brilliance, like Kevin Barry without the swearing
Dalkey Book Festival: Salman Rushdie among authors announced in line-upOver the four days, some of the world’s best known literary faces will descend on Dalkey
After the Shy Girl controversy, where does publishing’s AI problem leave authors and readers?Publishers risk unwittingly putting out books generated with artificial-intelligence tools. Authors and readers are frustrated, nervous and grasping for solutions
Look What You Made Me Do by John Lanchester: a revenge story of Millennials versus BoomersFunction of this genre is to sublimate what Nietzsche called ressentiment, the rage that arises from a feeling of powerlessness
Procrastinating? Take a nap, go for a pint and start afresh tomorrowA healthy ego can survive contact with the world. A fragile ego must wrap itself in protective layers
Book of the Day review: A timely contemplation of the strategies of war and international relationsA timely contemplation, in a series of academic essays, of the strategies of war, international relations and nuclear deterrence
Jesse Malin on his life-changing spinal stroke: ‘I’m still in a lot of pain. I’m still working all the time on my body’The New York songwriter, who has just written the memoir Almost Grown, on his recovery and taking inspiration from Shane MacGowan’s resilience
Music books: From the ugly side of the business to becoming a household name, and a dialogue of trustLove Magic Power Danger Bliss: Yoko Ono and the Avant-Garde Diaspora; A Hard Day’s Night; The Evolution of American Film Music, 1960s-1990s
Buzzy, starry-eyed YA titles argue for the importance of the artsYA fiction reads for April from Caryl Lewis, Méabh Collins, Derek Landy, Susie Nadler and a debut from Stephen Daly
Mary O’Donnell: ‘I’d happily sign off on a 10% Leaving Cert bonus for English, music and art’A desire to ‘rip into a subject that has sat like a succubus on me’ inspired writer’s first novel since 2014
Gabriel Rosenstock obituary: Prolific poet, author and champion of the Irish languageCo Limerick-born writer who drew inspiration from the east was traditional in a very different way
Author Emma Donoghue: ‘I grew up very normal, yet had this secret side that I thought everyone would consider foul’The writer on literary reputation, emigration and ‘the crushing weight of being the only gay in the village’
An Arrow in Flight by Mary Lavin: Excellent exploration of a different yet similar IrelandCountry she depicts is not romanticised but simply lived in: a world of small houses, strained marriages and worried parents
Banshee: Mythological Irish Women Retold edited by Ailbhe Malone – Breathtakingly varied tales rekindle storytelling traditionAuthorial relish and exuberance are apparent on every page of this short story collection, with contributions from Naoise Dolan, Sarah Maria Griffin and more
Nine Days in May by Jonathan Schneer and Radicals: The Working Classes and the Making of Modern Britain by Geoff AndrewsDespite their defeat in two historic strikes, the British miners’ struggle raised huge questions for society
Strokestown poetry prize shortlist revealedBooks newsletter: a wrap of the latest news and preview of tomorrow’s pages
Skulduggery Pleasant author Derek Landy: ‘Sometimes the trajectory of your life hinges on one single moment’While I was working on the farm, I was writing in my head. Every break time, every lunch after work, I would go straight to the page
The Keeper by Tana French: A crime writer at the top of her gameThe third novel in French’s Cal Hooper series is an immersive read that demands to be savoured
Contentious Spaces by Rosaleen McDonagh: Prose that’s measured, assured and fully humanAn accomplished playwright, performer and essayist, McDonagh brings to her debut novel the authority of lived experience
David Keenan: ‘For me, the names of places and streets in the North have incredible magic to them’The Boyhood author talks about his Belfast dad’s faith in language, love songs being the greatest art, and how writing makes you question your sanity
Defiance by Loubna Mrie: A gripping, devastating account of a Syrian woman’s revolutionMrie is remarkably brave in her documentation of Syria, its people and what she did after she realised she was unable to keep living in the way that was expected of her
Dublin Literary Award 2026 shortlist: ‘Literature at its most international, most ambitious, and most humane’Award-winning Scottish author Ali Smith, Vietnamese American writer Ocean Vuong and a Croatian debutant feature on a list with a strong French accent
Seán Lemass, The Lost Memoir: Leadership, Ireland’s economic transformation and Fianna FáilRonan McGreevy’s new book edits 22 hours of private recordings to reveal the inner workings of the former taoiseach’s mind
President Connolly pays tribute to poet Gabriel Rosenstock who has died aged 76Born in Co Limerick, Rosenstock won numerous awards and wrote primarily in Irish
Everything That Is Beautiful by Louise Nealon: a breathless romance and a torrid hurling taleNovel taps into a passion that has set generations alight - a sport that binds communities and creates heroes
New poetry: John McCullough; Paddy Bushe; Raquel F Menéndez; Wendy CopeReviews of Crowd Voltage; Uncertain Passage; The Posthumous Book of Shahrazad; and the Collected Poems of Wendy Cope
Author Susannah Dickey: ‘With each book I find myself more invested in writing Ireland’In the author’s Donegal-set third novel Into the Wreck the vessel of the title ‘represents in some ways the plethora of suppressed histories harboured by families’ across the island
Bodily Fluids by Liam Hughes: Medical memoir aims to entertain but lacks nuanceRetired cardiologist’s dedication is evident but the tone of this book is at times problematic
EL by Thaddeus Ó Buachalla: An early contender for most ambitious Irish novel of the yearEqual parts Flann O’Brien and Dan Brown, EL is a novel of impressively epic sweep
Communion by Jon Doyle: A genuinely idiosyncratic way of describing the everydayNovel has a meandering quality and a subtlety in terms of what’s actually happening that proves a bit too subtle
The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley: More extraordinary writing about ordinary livesSo engaging it will be read in one sitting
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe: Mastery of timing makes this investigation a page-turnerNew Yorker writer’s drive to get to the truth again brings impetus to ask ‘just one more thing’
Mr Hoo and Other Stories: No judgment in these barrister’s tales united by literary masteryA number of the stories in John O’Donnell’s collection focus on people who run foul of the law, an area in which the author has expertise
Python’s Kiss by Louise Erdrich: Intriguing, vital and often funnyMaybe Minnesota helps make this writer great
Author Jan Carson: ‘I Googled what would happen if you drained Lough Neagh’Author’s fourth novel, Few and Far Between, is inspired by a politician’s madcap scheme
In brief: Leo XIV: An Augustinian Life in Context; The Sky Is Not Enough; The Dice Was Loaded from the StartReviews of works by Brian Heffernan; June O’Sullivan; and David Annand
Tuesdays with Morrie author Mitch Albom: ‘I make a conscious choice to be hopeful. That’s not always in vogue’With a new Irish production of the stage show based on the book, Albom’s autobiographical story is still finding new audiences
Nonesuch by Francis Spufford: Distinctly Narnian in timbre – pure story of the richest kindPart of the game of Nonesuch is to restore the reality of the second World War to a Narnian story of magic
Pigott Poetry Prize shortlist announcedBooks newsletter: a wrap of the latest news and preview of Saturday’s pages
Among Communists by Sinéad Morrissey: memoir captures North in pressure cooker of weirdnessMemoir expresses an attitude of observation that rhymes quietly with poetry, a revelation of a writer and her experience
All Them Dogs by Djamel White: Magical writing which tenderises the most hardened charactersNovel is filled with a street lyricism that mines masculinity in a manner reminiscent of Jim Carroll or Robert McLiam Wilson
International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist: women dominate list that ‘reverberates with history’Novels transport readers from 1930s Japan-ruled Taiwan to Nazi-controlled Europe, from magic and domesticity in 1990s France to the Iranian Revolution in 1979
The Visit by Neil Tully: Lyrical debut novel asks what happens to those left behindA once insular Wexford community casts its gaze outwards as it prepares to welcome JFK
Colm Tóibín demonstrates a complete command of his craft in new short story collectionNew short story collection ranges over territories familiar to Tóibín’s readers: Wexford, Catalonia, Argentina and the US
Fiction in translation: City Like Water; Women Without Men; X is Where I Am; You Are the Fuhrer’s Unrequited LoveA nightmarish cityscape that is identifiably Hong Kong; a classic of oppression in Iran; a celebration of queer lives; and a stark exploration of Albert Speer
Louise Nealon: ‘I’m exploring an energy of misogyny that we all participate in’Snowflake author Louise Nealon on a culture of misogyny, making therapy work and writing new novel following hit debut
Sheila O’Flanagan: Losing family members makes you aware of how fragile our connections areAhead of her latest release Secrets Between Friends, author talks about loss, the challenges facing female writers and snobbery in the industry
James Joyce - A Political Life by Frank Callanan: Depth and detail over a wide historical canvasBook’s raison d’être is to magnify the effect of Charles Stewart Parnell and his downfall on Joyce for the whole of his career
Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood: a literary titan on the art of writing – and art of living By Nathan SmithListen | 05:27
Dalkey Book Festival: Salman Rushdie among authors announced in line-upOver the four days, some of the world’s best known literary faces will descend on Dalkey
On Strategists and Strategy: Collected Essays 2014-2024 by Lawrence Freedman: absence of ethical leadership akin to a ‘drunk clinging to a lamppost’
Music books: From the ugly side of the business to becoming a household name, and a dialogue of trust
Author Emma Donoghue: ‘I grew up very normal, yet had this secret side that I thought everyone would consider foul’
‘The feeling came back, the one I had been successfully avoiding for so long: shame’ By Soula Emmanuel
The late Gabriel Rosenstock wrote Letters to the Editor for 50 years. Here are just a fewBy Niamh Browne