Sam Tallent’s Running the Light: Tale of a god-gifted comedian masquerading as joker and joke
A fictional tell-all that is Dante as gag-artist, trapped in a Diabolical Comedy
By Peter Murphy
Seamus Heaney’s North at 50: Poetic landmark ‘came most intensely out of the first shock of the Troubles’
Elaine Feeney on her new novel: ‘I was pushing a sort of Chekhov dinner party in the west of Ireland’
Behind the Scenes: The Dramatic Lives of Philip Burton; Yankeeland; Soft Tissue Damage
The Names by Florence Knapp: what’s in a name?
Air by John Boyne: Superb, at-times harrowing, still questioning
How did European identity develop? Three authors take on colonialism, imperialism and witchcraft
For Valerie by David French: A very personal study of femicide that is ‘dedicated to the silenced women’
SHORT STORIES
POETRY
Deadly Silence: The compelling and harrowing story on the killing of Clodagh Hawe and her children
By John Walshe
Kincora: Britain’s Shame by Chris Moore - Strong and unnerving, some accounts linger like a bad taste
By Malachi O’Doherty
The Greek Revolution and the Violent Birth of Nationalism: A ‘crooked line’ leading to war and independence
By Richard Pine
The Unaccountability Machine by Dan Davies: an excellent diagnosis but a depressing prognosis
By Kevin Gildea
The Secret Life of Leinster House by Gavan Reilly: A survey of political life from the inside out
By Pat Leahy
Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever by Lamorna Ash: a literary feat and deeply humane book about faith
By Kevin Power