The Dead House review: Odd blend of naturalistic and uncannyDebut novel from acclaimed short-story writer Billy O’Callaghan lacks finesseSat May 20 2017 - 06:00
The Iron Age review: steely portrait of postwar FinlandArja Kajermo uses fable and charming illustrations to bring a family’s struggles to lifeSat May 13 2017 - 06:00
After the amputation: a powerful rendering of disabilityHopdance review: Stewart Parker’s posthumous memoir novel captures figments of a lost yearSat May 06 2017 - 06:00
Harvesting review: Lifting the lid on sex trafficking in IrelandActor Lisa Harding’s debut novel is character-driven and highly dramaticSat Apr 29 2017 - 06:00
Teenage brothers on the run with an addict fatherOne of the Boys by Daniel Magariel review: an emotional taleSat Apr 22 2017 - 06:00
How to Be Human review: An unusual date for another mad MaryPaula Cocozza’s beguiling first novel charts the love affair between a lonely woman and a flirtatiously fantastic foxSat Apr 15 2017 - 06:00
Skintown review: Pills ‘n’ thrills and bellyachesActor Ciarán McMenamin’s debut captures the voice of disaffected youth in 1990s NorthSat Apr 08 2017 - 06:00
The Possessions review: sexual obsession from beyond the graveSara Flannery Murphy’s intriguing debut merges the worlds of the living and the deadSat Apr 01 2017 - 06:00
Edith & Oliver review: Illusions of grandeurMichèle Forbes’s story of a doomed romance in the vaudeville world lacks a magic sparkSat Mar 25 2017 - 06:00
Here Comes the Sun review: Used and abused in JamaicaNicole Dennis-Benn’s first novel shines a light on tourism’s underbellySat Mar 18 2017 - 06:00
Ithaca review: Fierce and funny modern odysseyAlan McMonagle’s enthralling debut follows an Irish teenager trying to imagine a better lifeSat Mar 11 2017 - 06:00
10 great books by Irish womenIn the final part of our series on influential books by women writers, we focus on Irish authorsWed Mar 08 2017 - 05:30
Under the Almond Tree review: A teenage refugee’s taleAn Afghan family fleeing the Taliban in the 1990s take refuge on an endless train journeyMon Mar 06 2017 - 10:00
A young Dublin feminist who prefers poison to pianoReview: The Coroner’s Daughter is a gory, frenetic but tongue-in-cheek murder tale set in 1816 DublinSat Feb 25 2017 - 06:00
You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine review: Suffering single white femalesAlexandra Kleeman’s disturbing dystopia takes on body image and the beauty mythSat Feb 18 2017 - 06:00
Black Wave review: From hedonism to the apocalypseAmerican LGBT writer Michelle Tea takes a leap from memoir to something a tad more explosiveSat Feb 11 2017 - 06:00
The Fractured Life of Jimmy Dice: twin peaks in family sagaRonan Ryan’s debut novel about the unlucky Diaz clan is compelling and compassionateSat Feb 04 2017 - 06:00
The One Memory of Flora Banks review: Firing on most cylindersFlaws aside, Emily Barr’s YA debut hums with an original plot and likable heroineSat Jan 28 2017 - 05:00
The Burning Ground review: Los Angeles stories with poetic visionFrom burnt-out businessmen to a sun-scorched surfing paradise, the city comes to life in Adam O’Riordan’s debut collectionSat Jan 21 2017 - 05:00
Virgin and Other First Stories review: Feelings stripped to the boneSpiritual and sexual awakenings take a Gothic twist in April Ayers Lawson’s debut collectionSat Jan 14 2017 - 05:00
Montpelier Parade by Karl Geary review: Spinning hearts in 1980s DublinA powerful debut about a doomed romance recalls the novels of Donal RyanSat Jan 07 2017 - 05:00
Work Like Any Other review: Plenty of work, not much playVirginia Reeves’s Man Booker-longlisted debut is eloquently written but on the dull sideSat Dec 24 2016 - 05:00
Trysting review: Snapshots of relationships’ myriad facesEmmanuelle Pagano’s latest book brings readers on rollercoaster of love’s highs and lowsSat Dec 17 2016 - 05:00
Margaret the First review: The life and times of ‘Mad Madge’ CavendishThe protofeminist duchess is brilliantly realised in Danielle Dutton’s blackly funny novelSat Dec 10 2016 - 05:00
The Mothers by Brit Bennett review: a maternal chorus watches onA young American author’s brave debut tackles suicide, abortion and motherhoodSat Dec 03 2016 - 05:00
Books: hits and misses in 2016From writers to politicians, the highs and lows of books they readMon Nov 28 2016 - 00:00
School of Velocity review: notes on a friendshipA classical pianist looks back on his life in Eric Beck Rubin’s short, meditative novelSat Nov 26 2016 - 05:00
The Virginity of Famous Men review: Getting down and dirtyChristine Sneed’s new collection uses sex to reveal sharp, funny insights into modern lifeSat Nov 19 2016 - 05:00
A Portable Shelter reviewNew Fiction: Kirsy Logan’s imaginative collection highlights the importance of storytellingSat Nov 12 2016 - 05:00
Girl in Pieces review: writing that makes the cutIntimate, gritty novel offers a realistic account of self-harm – and a glimmer of hopeSat Nov 05 2016 - 05:00
Ferenji review: This means warHelena Mulkerns’s engaging debut collection features stories set in conflict zonesSat Oct 29 2016 - 05:00
Himself review: He sees dead people in MayoJess Kidd’s debut novel is atmospheric but too cliched to really score as mystery or dramaSat Oct 22 2016 - 05:00
The Atomic Weight of Love review: fledgling feminismElizabeth Church’s debut novel on nuclear war and women’s liberation fails to take flightSat Oct 15 2016 - 05:00
The Story of a Brief Marriage review: Till death do us partAnuk Arudpragasam explores what it means to be alive when war takes away our dignitySat Oct 08 2016 - 05:00
Spare and Found Parts review: adventures in a post-apocalyptic DublinIt’s a pity Sarah Maria Griffin’s imaginative young adult debut never quite hits its strideSat Sept 24 2016 - 05:00
Private Citizens review: ‘Middlemarch’ for millennialsTony Tulathimutte offers a comic portrait of privilege and friendship in noughties ’FriscoSat Sept 24 2016 - 00:00
The Abode of Fancy by Sam Coll review: a hugely impressive linguistic featFantasy and reality fuse in an ambitious and linguistically powerful Irish debutSat Sept 17 2016 - 00:00
Hostages by Oisín Fagan review: Taking no prisonersA near-future dystopia, an engaging short story debut mostly set in MeathSat Sept 10 2016 - 05:00
Paradise lost: the relative pain of the rich and poorA Cameroonian couple's American dreams are dashed amid the global financial crisisSat Sept 03 2016 - 05:00
The Comet Seekers review: The patterns in the starsHelen Sedgwick’s engaging debut, set in rural Ireland, maps out a constellation of lives over centuriesSat Aug 27 2016 - 05:00
Constellation by Adrien Bosc review: mining wreckage of an air crashAn engaging mix of reportage, fiction and historical writing, the story of a fatal flight filled with starsSat Aug 20 2016 - 05:43
The Countenance Divine review: Book of irrelevant revelationsFour centuries of prophecies and punishment are depicted in this odd novelSat Aug 13 2016 - 03:11
The Tsar of Love and Techno review: Total totalitarian recallAn American’s interlocking stories set in hardened Russia grip from the get-goSat Aug 06 2016 - 01:00
Nina Is Not OK review: Debut tackling big issues more than OKComedian Shappi Khorsandi’s debut novel is a sharply observed coming-of-age taleSat Jul 30 2016 - 01:00
Hope Farm by Peggy Frew review: a child’s unrequited love in a hippie hellThis atmospheric novel explores hippie living and maternal neglect in 1980s AustraliaSat Jul 23 2016 - 01:00
The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan review: explosive consequencesMultiple viewpoints create a shrapnel-like effect in a novel about terrorism in IndiaSat Jul 16 2016 - 01:00
Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan by Ruth Gilligan reviewGilligan’s ‘literary fiction’ debut inventively connects up Ireland’s Jewish narrativesSat Jul 09 2016 - 01:00
The Muse by Jessie Burton review: a touch of second-novel syndromeFlashes of brilliant writing are weighed down by the plot in ‘Miniaturist’ author’s new novelSat Jul 02 2016 - 01:00
