Culture | Books, Music, Theatre, Film & The Arts

Book Of The Week: Deep Burn by Brendan Mac Evilly

Deep Burn, the debut novel by Brendan Mac Evilly, follows Martha Knox, a woman in her late 30s who has been unceremoniously dumped by her husband Gerry less than a year into their marriage.

Books • 10 Nov

Book Of The Week: Beat that! The Story of the Irish Bodhrán

Cork University Press has recently published Beating Time: The Story of the Irish Bodhrán by Fintan Vallely, a major new study of the instrument.

Book Of The Week • 15 Oct

Book Of The Week: New Arcana by Jessica Traynor

One of the most remarkable things about Jessica Traynor's New Arcana is how successfully it manages to evoke the expansive honesty at the heart of John Berryman's 1969 masterwork The Dream Songs.

Book Of The Week • 29 Sep

Book Of The Week: Sinéad O'Connor and the writers she inspired

A new book, Nothing Compares to You: What Sinéad O'Connor Means to Us, edited by Sonya Huber and Martha Bayne, brings together 25 essays inspired by the singer.

Book Of The Week • 15 Sep

Book Of The Week: We Used to Dance Here by Dave Tynan

In his influential trilogy of science fiction novels published between 1984 and 1988, American author William Gibson imagined a future in which the exponential growth of cities along the east coast of the United States would eventually lead to a 'Sprawl'

Book Of The Week • 05 Sep

Keith Donald, pictured on the cover of his memoir Music & Mayhem

Book Of The Week: Musician Keith Donald's diaries from the edge

Via The Journal Of Music: Saxophonist and former member of Moving Hearts Keith Donald has recently published a memoir, Music & Mayhem: Passion, Addiction and Redemption in the Golden Age of Irish Music

Book Of The Week • 08 Jul

Why Pat McCabe matters - his latest novel Goldengrove reviewed

Paul Duane reviews the latest novel from the celebrated author of The Butcher Boy, Breakfast On Pluto and Winterwood.

Book Of The Week • 28 Jun

Book Of The Week: The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine

When John William De Forest coined the 'Great American Novel' in 1868, he anticipated a work which had the ability communicate the tableau of contemporary living through "the ordinary emotions and manners of American existence".

Book Of The Week • 20 Oct

Our Song - author Anna Carey (Pic: Brid O'Donovan)

Book Of The Week: Our Song by Anna Carey

Our Song marks Carey's first foray into fiction for adults, and what unfurls in this charming and compulsively readable novel is not just a tender love story, but one that harmonises with Carey's real life story of musical romance.

Book Of The Week • 16 Jun

Book Of The Week: Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way by Elaine Feeney

Elaine Feeney's new novel is a masterclass in Irish storytelling...

Book Of The Week • 09 Jun

The Emperor Of Gladness - author Ocean Vuong (Pic: Getty)

Book Of The Week: The Emperor Of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

A title like The Emperor of Gladness conjures images of grandeur, or indeed of a utopian state, writes Conor Hanratty.

Book Of The Week • 14 May

Book Of The Week: Open, Heaven by Sean Hewitt

Just as for his remarkable memoir, All Down Darkness Wide, Sean Hewitt has borrowed the title of his debut novel from another poet, writes Conor Hanratty.

Book Of The Week • 17 Apr

Book Of The Week: Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld

I was immediately struck by the title of Curtis Sittenfeld's new collection of 12 short stories, Show Don't Tell, writes Sarah Trott.

Books • 04 Mar

Book Of The Week: Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell

Much has been made in recent years about the rise of the so-called 'Issues Novel' in Ireland.

Book Of The Week • 28 Jan

David McCullagh on Communism's forgotten radicals

'This book is crammed full of stories of fascinating people who led extraordinary lives – and yet one of the main characters is actually a building.'

Book Of The Week • 08 Sep 24

Seabourne author Nuala O'Connor (Pic: Una O'Connor)

Book Of The Day: Nuala O'Connor's Seaborne

A vast array of novels have carved their plots from the remnants of history.

Books • 21 Jul 24

Book Of The Day: The Heart In Winter by Kevin Barry

Reading Kevin Barry is like hanging out with a fun relative at a lavish family wedding; one you're happy to have been pulled aside to listen to, despite the revels and capers all around...

Books • 18 Jul 24

RTÉ 2FM's Laura Fox (L) with author Vicki Notaro

Book Of The Day: Reality Check by Vicki Notaro

As a seasoned reader, I can honestly say that every holiday check list I write includes a book.

Books • 03 Jul 24

Book Of The Day: Devotion by Mícheál McCann

One of the most frustrating things about contemporary attitudes to the Confessional lyric is the expectation that it should be wholly autobiographical.

Books • 03 Jul 24

Book Of The Day: Old Romantics by Maggie Armstrong

You only have to nip into any bookshop to become aware of the overwhelming rise in romance fiction...

Books • 26 Jun 24

Book Of The Day: Land Is All That Matters by Myles Dungan

The assertion that land is all that matters, and that the struggle over it "shaped Irish history", are big claims to make.

Book Of The Week • 26 Jun 24

Book Of The Week: Openings by Lucy Caldwell

The Carver-esque story titles that make up Lucy Caldwell's new collection belie the lyricism at work in the author's short story canon.

Book Of The Week • 11 Jun 24

Book Of The Week: The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes

Profoundly moving in its delicacy, Caoilinn Hughes's The Alternatives is a portrait of four brilliant sisters moving through the grief of life after death.

Books • 28 May 24

Jenny Erpenbeck, winner of the International Booker Prize 2024

Book Of The Week: International Booker Prize winner Kairos

In relentless, unflinching present tense sentences, punched on to the page, it explores the extent to which human hearts might rise above history...

Books • 24 May 24

Book Of The Week: You Are Here by David Nicholls

Coming soon after the release of the Netflix version of One Day, David Nicholls' latest novel is another bitter-sweet homage to skewed romance.

Books • 22 May 24