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Lovely hurling: Moving and humorous account of the poet's East Galway formation.

Patrick Deeley - The Hurley Maker's Son

Patrick Deeley has penned a masterpiece of memoir-writing in which he recalls his East Galway childhood and the years afterwards with remarkable percipience and sensitivity.

Book Reviews • 19 Aug 16

Lucy Barton: a troubled family and a life of poverty, exclusion, pain and loneliness.

Elizabeth Strout - My Name is Lucy Barton

At times painfully sad, My Name is Lucy Barton is a memorable and tender novella, and the story-telling is rich and affecting.

Book Reviews • 19 Aug 16

Mary Costello - Won the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Novel of the Year award for Academy Street

One Irish author on €100k Dublin Literary shortlist

Just one Irish author - Mary Costello - has made the shortlist for this year's International Dublin Literary Award, formerly the IMPAC. The award is worth €100,000, the world's largest prize for a single novel published in English.

Entertainment • 13 Apr 16

The winner of the Baileys Women's Prize receives €38,700 in prize money.

Baileys Prize shortlist toasts Enright and McInerney

Irish authors Anne Enright and Lisa McInerney are among the six writers on the shortlist for this year's Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.

Entertainment • 12 Apr 16

Farrell - "Absolutely delighted" to be asked to narrate the film, says producer

Colin Farrell narrating film of homegrown bestseller

Colin Farrell is narrating the upcoming documentary It's Not Yet Dark which tells the story of Irish director Simon Fitzmaurice's life with motor neuron disease.

Entertainment • 12 Apr 16

Mothering Sunday: a vivid evocation of one fateful day in the world of Upstairs Downstairs in March 1924.

Graham Swift - Mothering Sunday

Graham Swift's absorbing new novella tracks the details of one fateful day in March 1924, the final fling in a secret relationship.

Book Reviews • 19 Aug 16

Mr Nice author Howard Marks dies aged 70

Howard Marks, the author of the bestselling autobiography Mr Nice, has died aged 70 after a battle with bowel cancer.

Entertainment • 11 Apr 16

Lucy Boynton - Joining X-Men star Nicholas Hoult in the biopic

Sing Street star takes Rye look at JD Salinger film

Sing Street star Lucy Boynton has joined the cast of the upcoming JD Salinger biopic Rebel in the Rye.

Entertainment • 08 Apr 16

Bunin's Dark Avenues: a perceptive reader of human emotions, with lyrical depictions of the Russian countryside.

Ivan Bunin - Dark Avenues

Ivan Bunin (1870-1953) was the first Russian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature - in 1933 - and he wrote these luminous stories between 1938 and 1944. Their setting harks back to earlier decades, the Russia of dachas and serfs and icons

Book Reviews • 19 Aug 16

Atonement author Ian McEwan: in hot water over transgender comments.

Ian McEwan in hot water over anti-trans comments

Novelist Ian McEwan has been criticised for comments that seem to question the right of trans people to identify with a particular gender.

Entertainment • 06 Apr 16

Irvine Welsh: a huge literary phenomenon despite mild dylsexia.

Irvine Welsh reveals he is dyslexic....And so is Begbie

Author Irvine Welsh has revealed that he has mild dyslexia and understands the humiliation that arises from “people not understanding that dyslexia isn’t you being stupid or wilfully obnoxious.”

Entertainment • 04 Apr 16

Everything is Happening: Michael Jacobs' swansong explores his fascination with an iconic work of art from 1656.

Michael Jacobs Everything is Happening

Art historian Michael Jacobs died aged 61 in 2014 before he could complete his musings on Velázquez's famous painting, Las Meninas. His friend, Observer reporter and author Ed Vulliamy has rounded off Jacobs' essay with a fitting introduction and coda.

Book Reviews • 19 Aug 16

Colm Tóibín with Nick Hornby pictured at last year's London Film Festival

Tóibín would not see Nora Webster as film like Brooklyn

Author Colm Tóibín has said that his novel Nora Webster would need a different approach to Brooklyn if it were to be made into a film.

Entertainment • 02 Apr 16

Derek Landy launches new thriller (pic: courtesy Twitter)

Irish author inspired by slasher movies and killer cars

Dublin author Derek Landy will release the second novel in his Demon Road trilogy on April 7 and he says it was inspired by his lifelong love of slasher movies, Stephen King novels, and modern urban legends.

Entertainment • 02 Apr 16

Bernice Barrington: a strong, confident debut.

Bernice Barrington Sisters and Lies

Sisters and Lies is a well written, twisty thriller which runs to 416 pages. The characters are believable, the tension satisfying, the story meaty.

Book Reviews • 19 Aug 16

Rowling: the first female novelist in the world to become a billionaire

JK Rowling shares rejection letters from publishers

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has shared two rejection letters she received from publishers while writing under her pen name Robert Galbraith.

Entertainment • 25 Mar 16

Citizens: the idealism of 1916 set against contemporary disillusion.

Kevin Curran Citizens

Kevin Curran’s novel pivots fluidly between its respective settings in the idealistic early years of the twentieth century - specifically the momentous events of the Easter Rising - and contemporary disillusion.

Book Reviews • 19 Aug 16

Irish author Eilís Barrett has released her debut novel Oasis

Young Adult fiction saves kids' lives says Irish author

16-year-old Irish author Eilís Barrett, who has just published her debut novel Oasis, has spoken about the importance of Young Adult fiction, saying YA books "save kids' lives".

Entertainment • 23 Mar 16

Graham Norton to release 'darkly funny' novel

Graham Norton has written a "darkly funny" novel - his first foray into the world of literary fiction.

Entertainment • 21 Mar 16

Seamus Heaney - a rendering beyond an old teacher's wildest imaginings.

Seamus Heaney Aeneid Book VI

Seamus Heaney began a complete "rendering" of Virgil's Aeneid VI in 2007 after he finished poems written on the birth of his first grand-daughter. His version is a powerful piece, cresting the waves between poignancy and grand heroics.

Book Reviews • 19 Aug 16

Cecelia Ahern is Hollywood bound once again

Cecelia Ahern's latest novel snapped up by Hollywood

Cecelia Ahern's latest novel, Flawed, has been snapped up by film giants Warner Bros. and is set to made into a movie – and it's not even out yet!

Entertainment • 17 Mar 16

Hotel Du Lac author Anita Brookner has died

Booker winner Anita Brookner dies, aged 87

The writer and art historian Anita Brookner, author of the Booker Prize-winning Hotel du Lac, has died. She was 87.

Entertainment • 15 Mar 16

Roddy Doyle paid tribute to Johnny Murphy on Facebook to "just say goodbye"

Roddy Doyle opens up on Johnny Murphy tribute

Roddy Doyle opened up about paying tribute to his late friend, actor Johnny Murphy from The Commitments, saying his Facebook 'Two Pints' post gave him a chance to "just say goodbye".

Entertainment • 13 Mar 16

Anonymous author makes Man Booker longlist

The author behind the best-selling Neapolitan novels is in the running for the Man Booker International Prize, her first major international literary nomination, but the writer's true identity remains unknown.

Entertainment • 10 Mar 16

Harper Lee - details of her will are being kept schtum

Author Harper Lee’s will to be kept secret

A US judge has signed an order to keep the details of Harper Lee’s will from public view. The late author is estimated to have amassed a personal fortune of around $45 million before she passed away last month.

Entertainment • 09 Mar 16