Recommended Over the last decade or so, Brooklyn has gone from a byword for gritty urban life – the place where Pete Hamill and Spike Lee told their stories – to a punch line referring to the chic hipsters who have flocked to the borough. Colm Toibin might seem an unlikely candidate to add a fascinating new chapter to Brooklyn’s literary life. After all, his novels, such as … [Read more...] about Review of Books
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Review of Books
Recommended Back in the mid-1990s, it seemed like everything Irish was cool. Bono was a global rock star, Riverdance was an international sensation, and Frank McCourt sold millions of books. Then, there was Seamus Heaney. The notion of a popular poet seemed almost quaint in the digital age. Yet when Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995, he became yet another Irish … [Read more...] about Review of Books
Review of Books
Recommended The list of hefty novels which explore the terrible time of the Great Hunger continues to grow, and is all the more noteworthy because so many of the works are impressive. In the wake of older classics such as Liam O’Flaherty’s Famine, we’ve had Peter Quinn’s brilliant Banished Children of Eve and Kevin Baker’s Paradise Alley, both of which explored New York City … [Read more...] about Review of Books
Review of Books
Recommended Dennis Lehane had already made an impressive name for himself as the author of stylish crime noirs set on the gritty streets of Boston when Hollywood came calling. First, it was Clint Eastwood, who turned Lehane’s taut psychological thriller Mystic River into a classic movie. Next up was Ben Affleck, whose directorial debut was based on Lehane’s novel Gone Baby … [Read more...] about Review of Books
Review of Books
Recommended The Likeness by Tana French Tana French made a surprise splash with critics and readers when her debut novel In the Woods was released last year. Aside from spending weeks on numerous best-seller lists, In the Woods also won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. In the Woods explored the murder of a girl in Dublin, which is where French grew up. (She also spent … [Read more...] about Review of Books