Books of Irish and Irish American interest. ℘℘℘ From Elsewhere By Ciaran Carson In a new collection of translations, Belfast poet Ciaran Carson tackles the late modern poetry of Jean Follain, a poet/lawyer of whom Carson refreshingly admits in the introduction he was unaware until the age of Internet, where he had to look him up. That two poets whose lives overlapped for a … [Read more...] about Review of Books
review of books
Review of Books
Books of Irish and Irish American interest. ℘℘℘ FICTION Pond By Claire-Louise Bennett English writer Claire-Louise Bennett’s debut novel Pond is a through-the-looking-glass experience of the human psyche in its most cloistered state, where the commonplace is ignited into something far brighter and stranger. Some time after an academia-induced breakdown, an anonymous young … [Read more...] about Review of Books
Review of Books
Books of Irish and Irish American interest. ℘℘℘ LITERATURE Spill Simmer Falter Wither By Sara Baume Before she began her creative writing Master’s degree at Trinity, Sara Baume studied fine art, and her visual acuity seeps through every pore of her debut novel, which was awarded the prestigious Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. The story itself is not a new one: outcast … [Read more...] about Review of Books
The Little Red Chairs:
A Novel by Edna O’Brien
A Novel by Edna O’Brien
Edna O’Brien’s acclaimed new novel, her first in a decade, is reviewed. Celts have always believed in an invisible spirit world running parallel to our visible world, a mystical universe that has given Irish storytellers a rich folklore of the supernatural. From this tradition comes the oft-told story (undoubtedly a cautionary tale for impressionable girls) of a handsome … [Read more...] about
A Novel by Edna O’Brien
Shane O’Neill Was “The Grand Disturber” of Elizabethan Ireland
Brian Mallon’s epic novel chronicling the life of Shane O’Neill, the 16th century Irish chieftain, is reviewed by Fionnula Flanagan. ℘℘℘ Here is the great dark cloak of Irish Elizabethan history spread out before us. Its threads are spun from loyalty, intrigue, betrayal, lust, terror, thievery, and extraordinary courage, ferocity in battle, savagery in revenge, and passion in … [Read more...] about Shane O’Neill Was “The Grand Disturber” of Elizabethan Ireland