LIterature Reviews

Hodges Figgis fulfils a bookshop lover’s every desire, from the iconic Victorian facade to the four levels of floor to ceiling bookshelves. Having officially opened in 1768, Hodges Figgis celebrates its 250th birthday this year, making it…

When I read Kim Stanley Robinson’s science fiction novel 2312 last autumn, I wasn’t sure what exactly to make of it. It was obviously science fiction – with some elements of space opera – but there was something that I couldn’t quite put my…

On Friday 16th February I sat down in the Victorian Bar of the Irish Whiskey Museum, a beautiful room, softly lit to create a cosy and welcoming setting. The audience sat back with a drink as a guitar and bodhran began playing in the corner…

“For the true bookworm,” journalist Lucy Mangan declares, “life doesn’t really begin until you get hold of your first book.” Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading is, as Mangan, acknowledges, “necessarily incomplete”. Now in her early…

With Valentine’s Day just gone, what better way of celebrating love in all its glory than by reading Almost Love, the upcoming novel from Louise O’Neill. Confession time: I haven’t read either of Louise O’Neill’s previous two…

Padraig Kenny’s children’s novel, Tin, opens with an engineer, Mr Absalom, crunching through snow with a human boy, Christopher, and a robot child for sale, Jack. Absalom swaps Jack’s red hair for brown, ‘because nobody buys gingers, awful…

Restless Souls is Dan Sheehan’s debut novel and it’s a bold experiment, straddling several genres and constantly confounding the reader’s expectations. At first you think it’s going to be a war junkie’s story from the 1990s siege of…

Montpelier Parade, the debut novel by Irish-born American author Karl Geary, was published by Harvill Secker just over a year ago, in January 2017. Its name is now quietly bubbling to the top of many ‘best books of the year’ lists, making…

An accidental murder kicks off a crime fuelled chain of events that is both hilarious and heart breaking in Lisa McInerney’s roaring debut. At the centre of the interweaving narratives is the tough but troubled teenager Ryan Cusack. The…

Sarah Pinborough's 13 minutes; A book that makes me glad I was a complete dork in school. What can I say in this review without giving away all the twists and turns of Sarah Pinborough’s YA thriller, 13 Minutes. Its good, really good. Go…