Night Swimming
By Doreen Finn
Mercier, €16.99
When Americans move into the flat downstairs, nine-year-old Megan's world expands. Until now life with her mother Gemma, a single parent and lonely artist, and her grandmother Sarah has been quiet, routine, contained. The arrival of older, more sophisticated Beth, her mother Judith and father Chris upsets their balanced lives, bringing disquiet and passion into the summer heatwave of 1976. Languid and dream-like, the story feels like a shimmering vision in the heat, capturing both a love affair and a terrible accident with the same lyricism. Evoking Dublin of the time and the exotic otherness of the visitors, it's atmospheric and tender in its depiction of a young girl on the brink of maturity. – Ruth McKee
Japanese Tales
Lafcadio Hearn
Princeton, £17.99
Greek-born, Irish-raised and US immigrant Lafcadio Hearn transformed from a well-known late 19th-century American writer into a much-loved (in his adopted country) exponent of Japanese culture in less than a decade, at roughly the same time as Japan rapidly changed from a traditional feudal society into a great industrial power. With Greek myths and Celtic folktales in his blood, he became a hugely successful writer, as famous in Japan as Twain, Poe and Stevenson. Much exiled, he found a home finally in Japan, where he married, changed his name and embraced its mythical, patriarchal, samurai past and produced 12 major books on the country. The stories in this collection are a mixture of folktales, fairytales and ghost stories, with strong Buddhist and Shinto influences. Although they are based on Japanese originals, Hearn hones, changes and retells them, at times exaggerating for effect, as he developed an almost surrealist style that was concise and diverse. The Dream of a Summer Day shows the universality of fairytales – it's similar to the story of Oisín and Tír na nÓg – whereas The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi is a ghost story with a difference. – Brian Maye
