The Fractured Life of Jimmy Dice: twin peaks in family sagaRonan Ryan’s debut novel about the unlucky Diaz clan is compelling and compassionateSat Feb 4 2017 - 06:00
The One Memory of Flora Banks review: Firing on most cylindersFlaws aside, Emily Barr’s YA debut hums with an original plot and likable heroineSat Jan 28 2017 - 05:00
The Burning Ground review: Los Angeles stories with poetic visionFrom burnt-out businessmen to a sun-scorched surfing paradise, the city comes to life in Adam O’Riordan’s debut collectionSat Jan 21 2017 - 05:00
Virgin and Other First Stories review: Feelings stripped to the boneSpiritual and sexual awakenings take a Gothic twist in April Ayers Lawson’s debut collectionSat Jan 14 2017 - 05:00
Montpelier Parade by Karl Geary review: Spinning hearts in 1980s DublinA powerful debut about a doomed romance recalls the novels of Donal RyanSat Jan 7 2017 - 05:00
Work Like Any Other review: Plenty of work, not much playVirginia Reeves’s Man Booker-longlisted debut is eloquently written but on the dull sideSat Dec 24 2016 - 05:00
Trysting review: Snapshots of relationships’ myriad facesEmmanuelle Pagano’s latest book brings readers on rollercoaster of love’s highs and lowsSat Dec 17 2016 - 05:00
Margaret the First review: The life and times of ‘Mad Madge’ CavendishThe protofeminist duchess is brilliantly realised in Danielle Dutton’s blackly funny novelSat Dec 10 2016 - 05:00
The Mothers by Brit Bennett review: a maternal chorus watches onA young American author’s brave debut tackles suicide, abortion and motherhoodSat Dec 3 2016 - 05:00
Books: hits and misses in 2016From writers to politicians, the highs and lows of books they readMon Nov 28 2016 - 00:00
School of Velocity review: notes on a friendshipA classical pianist looks back on his life in Eric Beck Rubin’s short, meditative novelSat Nov 26 2016 - 05:00
The Virginity of Famous Men review: Getting down and dirtyChristine Sneed’s new collection uses sex to reveal sharp, funny insights into modern lifeSat Nov 19 2016 - 05:00
A Portable Shelter reviewNew Fiction: Kirsy Logan’s imaginative collection highlights the importance of storytellingSat Nov 12 2016 - 05:00
Girl in Pieces review: writing that makes the cutIntimate, gritty novel offers a realistic account of self-harm – and a glimmer of hopeSat Nov 5 2016 - 05:00
Ferenji review: This means warHelena Mulkerns’s engaging debut collection features stories set in conflict zonesSat Oct 29 2016 - 05:00
Himself review: He sees dead people in MayoJess Kidd’s debut novel is atmospheric but too cliched to really score as mystery or dramaSat Oct 22 2016 - 05:00
The Atomic Weight of Love review: fledgling feminismElizabeth Church’s debut novel on nuclear war and women’s liberation fails to take flightSat Oct 15 2016 - 05:00
The Story of a Brief Marriage review: Till death do us partAnuk Arudpragasam explores what it means to be alive when war takes away our dignitySat Oct 8 2016 - 05:00
Spare and Found Parts review: adventures in a post-apocalyptic DublinIt’s a pity Sarah Maria Griffin’s imaginative young adult debut never quite hits its strideSat Sep 24 2016 - 05:00
Private Citizens review: ‘Middlemarch’ for millennialsTony Tulathimutte offers a comic portrait of privilege and friendship in noughties ’FriscoSat Sep 24 2016 - 00:00
The Abode of Fancy by Sam Coll review: a hugely impressive linguistic featFantasy and reality fuse in an ambitious and linguistically powerful Irish debutSat Sep 17 2016 - 00:00
Hostages by Oisín Fagan review: Taking no prisonersA near-future dystopia, an engaging short story debut mostly set in MeathSat Sep 10 2016 - 05:00
Paradise lost: the relative pain of the rich and poorA Cameroonian couple's American dreams are dashed amid the global financial crisisSat Sep 3 2016 - 05:00
The Comet Seekers review: The patterns in the starsHelen Sedgwick’s engaging debut, set in rural Ireland, maps out a constellation of lives over centuriesSat Aug 27 2016 - 05:00
Constellation by Adrien Bosc review: mining wreckage of an air crashAn engaging mix of reportage, fiction and historical writing, the story of a fatal flight filled with starsSat Aug 20 2016 - 05:43
The Countenance Divine review: Book of irrelevant revelationsFour centuries of prophecies and punishment are depicted in this odd novelSat Aug 13 2016 - 03:11
The Tsar of Love and Techno review: Total totalitarian recallAn American’s interlocking stories set in hardened Russia grip from the get-goSat Aug 6 2016 - 01:00
Nina Is Not OK review: Debut tackling big issues more than OKComedian Shappi Khorsandi’s debut novel is a sharply observed coming-of-age taleSat Jul 30 2016 - 01:00
Hope Farm by Peggy Frew review: a child’s unrequited love in a hippie hellThis atmospheric novel explores hippie living and maternal neglect in 1980s AustraliaSat Jul 23 2016 - 01:00
The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan review: explosive consequencesMultiple viewpoints create a shrapnel-like effect in a novel about terrorism in IndiaSat Jul 16 2016 - 01:00
Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan by Ruth Gilligan reviewGilligan’s ‘literary fiction’ debut inventively connects up Ireland’s Jewish narrativesSat Jul 9 2016 - 01:00
The Muse by Jessie Burton review: a touch of second-novel syndromeFlashes of brilliant writing are weighed down by the plot in ‘Miniaturist’ author’s new novelSat Jul 2 2016 - 01:00
The Girls by Emma Cline review: a debut brimming with intelligence and ideasProvocative coming-of-age tale inspired by the Manson murders deserves all the hypeSat Jun 25 2016 - 01:00
World Refugee Day: 10 tales in literatureThe plight of refugees is back at the top of news bulletins but it has been a constant theme in modern literature as these 10 seminal works published since 2000 testifyMon Jun 20 2016 - 14:15
My Name Is Leon by Kit de Waal review: brotherly love under threatA moving, understated novel shows sympathy for the mother of all neglectful mothersSat Jun 18 2016 - 01:05
Red Dirt by EM Reapy review: gripping yarn of Irish drifters in OzImpressive debut novel moves from humour to poignancy with easeTue Jun 14 2016 - 08:55
Nothing Tastes as Good by Claire Hennessy review: close to the boneThe pressures felt by young women to fit a mould come through clearly in these storiesSat Jun 4 2016 - 01:00
Wild Quiet by Roisín O’Donnell review: global Irish village voicesA modern, multiracial Ireland forms the backdrop of an ambitious debut collectionSat May 28 2016 - 01:00
The Difference by Justine Delaney Wilson review: Living with differenceAn Irish journalist tackles the subject of Down syndrome in her debut novelSat May 21 2016 - 01:00
Not Working by Lisa Owens review: a gem of a debutQuick-witted and sharp-tongued, lovable and flawed, Claire is a super narrator that readers will easily connect with, a smarter Bridget JonesSat May 14 2016 - 01:00
‘A novel I am prepared to repudiate’: 10 books disowned by famous authorsFrom what John Banville called his ‘absurdly pretentious’ debut novel to Martin Amis’s non-fiction guide to Space Invaders, a fascinating look at writers’ rejection slips to selfThu May 12 2016 - 09:35
‘I guess it would be weird to never argue with a colleague, but no, we haven’t scrapped!’A Q&A with Henrietta McKervey, author of The Heart of Everything, and her editor Ciara ConsidineMon May 9 2016 - 15:00
The Bricks that Built the Houses by Kate Tempest review: a rambling edificeRapper, poet and playwright Kate Tempest’s debut novel is built on shaky foundationsSat May 7 2016 - 01:00
Review: Prodigals by Greg Jackson has drama, drugs and cut-throat dialogueIntellectually charged debut by a very gifted writerSat Apr 30 2016 - 01:00
The Minor Outsider by Ted McDermott review: absurdly impressiveTed McDermott’s novel focuses on life’s contradictions and absurditiesSat Apr 23 2016 - 01:00
Shakespeare and me: Irish writers on the Bard's best bitsSome admirers celebrate the playwright’s work on the 400th anniversary of his deathSat Apr 23 2016 - 01:00
A Q&A with Rob Doyle and his editors Daniel Caffrey and Alexa von Hirschberg‘We had some robust discussions about which stories to include, about their order, and I recall having to ask some rather frank questions about the sexual content of some’Mon Apr 18 2016 - 16:19
Frank O’Connor’s widow Harriet O’Donovan Sheehy dies, aged 92Irish literary news and listings: Lisa McInerney and Adrian McKinty longlisted for top crime novel prizeMon Apr 18 2016 - 15:27