Irish Century Series One of the most ambitious projects in recent Irish fiction will be completed when Morgan Llywelyn’s 1999: A Novel of the Celtic Tiger and the Search for Peace is published in February. ($24.95 / 400 pages / Forge). This is the fifth and final entry in Llywelyn’s Irish Century series, in which the prolific author traces the history of 20th-century Ireland … [Read more...] about Review of Books
Literature
A Window on the Past
By Katherine Hartnett, Editorial AssistantDecember / January 2008
This book is lovingly dedicated to my son, Max George, whose great-grand-father Edward Conway immigrated to America in 1900 at the age of 18. Arriving at Ellis Island from Ballina, Ireland, he had two dollars in his pocket and listed his occupation as “laborer.” By 1915, he was already living the American dream – he had a family, owned a home, and in one photo, a derby hat sits … [Read more...] about A Window on the Past
Review of Books
Recommended In October, Dublin-born novelist and short story writer Anne Enright won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction with her latest novel The Gathering. The book takes a close look at how the past haunts one large Irish family. The Hegartys at the center of Enright’s tale are shaken when son Liam (one of nine Hegarty children) commits suicide while living in England. … [Read more...] about Review of Books
The Unbearable Lightness of Kevin Bruen
By Darina Molloy
December / January 2008
December / January 2008
It’s no exaggeration to say that Ken Bruen could have stepped from the pages of one of his own novels. In fact if he didn’t already exist, he would have had to make himself up. Not that Bruen, a long-established crime writer, needs any help with the plots of his darkly gripping novels. But his life story is a page-turner in its own right. “You couldn’t make it up,” he notes … [Read more...] about The Unbearable Lightness of Kevin Bruen
Chuck Feeney: The Billionaire Who Wasn’t
The Billionaire Who Wasn’t by Conor O’Clery tells the story of Chuck Feeney, a young Irish-American who became rich beyond his dreams, only to give it all away through his fund Atlantic Philanthropies. The following excerpt opens just after Feeney graduated from Cornell College in 1965 with a degree in hotel administration. By mid-summer of 1956, Chuck Feeney still had no idea … [Read more...] about Chuck Feeney: The Billionaire Who Wasn’t