To The Lake
By Kapka Kassabova
Granta, £14.99
Kapka Kassabova is a renowned travel writer, having garnered extensive awards for her narrative non-fiction work. Returning to the birthplace of her maternal grandmother, a place that has always held an emotional hold over her, Kassabova offers the reader the stories, memories and history of a family deeply affected by conflict and exile. All of this is set against the elusive yet enduring backdrop of two bodies of water, Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa, a geographical and cultural crossroads between North Macedonia, Albania and Greece. Kassabova's prose is enchanting and challenging, poetic and stark all at once. By telling the story of her family through the history of the landscape that has shaped them, she makes the particular universal and invites her reader to ponder the significance of memory, identity and place in the broader context of human existence. – Becky Long
The Revisionaries
By A R Moxon
Melville House, £20
A R Moxon is already infamous among his massive band of Twitter followers for his caustic wit and searing political commentary but this is the first time the man behind the @Julius Goat handle has attempted to produce a full-length novel. The Revisionaries follows the haunted and haunting quest of a street preacher named Julius as he investigates the chaos gradually escalating through his city. The various strands of Moxon's surreal satire weave an intense and complicated narrative web, making for a demanding but ultimately rewarding read. The text is almost impossible to categorise, suffused as it is with literary and pop culture references that generate multiple layers of meaning for the discerning reader. Inventive and thought-provoking, Moxon's style incorporates elements of magical realism, reminiscent of Mary Gentle's nuanced sci-fi prose and Kurt Vonnegut's epigrammatic flair. – Becky Long
Maugherow: A Much Wilder Place
Edited by Seán Golden
Tread Softly Publishing, NP
Maugherow (Machaire Éabha/Eva's Plain) is a coastal peninsula northwest of Sligo town, stretching from magnificent Benbulben to the sea and including Streedagh Strand of Spanish Armada fame. It has close associations with the Gore-Booths of Lisadell and WB Yeats, from whom the subtitle comes. This striking tribute to a memorable place is a collection of written (prose, poetry), visual (paintings, photos) and musical responses to its history, landscape, life and lore. Well-known, recently deceased writers who lived there Dermot Healy and Leland Bardwell are featured but most of the contributors are local writers, painters and musicians. Serpent Rock, Ballyconnell is Seán Golden's lament for Healy and Ómós do Leland Michael McTighe's for Bardwell. Theatre of the Void evokes the rocky landscape and wind-swept shores and seas in a heightened poetic prose. – Brian Maye
