This beautifully presented book captures the political and cultural events of the years 1913-1923 with convincing contemporary-style newspaper reportage

Kate Edgar’s compilation paints a detailed portrait of a sometimes shy, uncertain, excitable human who was also a deeply compassionate and open-hearted outsider

While Joyce, Proust and Thomas Mann dominate, the right of authors to write exactly what they are inspired to write is a central issue for Frank

Declan Burke, Elizabeth Mannion and Brian Cliff round up their favourite crime novels of the year

Librettist Charles Jennens is given his due in the creation of a beloved standard of classical repertoire, which has strong links to Dublin

501 Essential Albums of the ’90s is US-centric; while Further Adventures in Record Collecting: Dust & Grooves Vol 2 is wonderful if eye-wateringly expensive

Reviews: The Island in the Sound; Grand Tour; National Theatre; and Long Distance

Between Holy Show, Dublin Review of Books, Tolka and the Dublin Review, I had a high stack on my desk

The self-confessed ‘altar boy in the church of cinema’ propels the reader comfortably from one argument to the next

People suffering from chronic fatigue-type illnesses could potentially benefit enormously from reading this book, but are likely to be frustrated by its long-windedness

Garth Greenwell’s third novel looks at how slow recovery can become a rehabilitation to life and literature

Michael O’Malley explores how scientific biology informs the arbitrariness of ‘racecraft’ found in family records

This chunk of writing spanning 30 years provides an ideal entry point to new readers of Graeber, while for those returning to his ideas, the pleasure is in the writing

Adrian Frazier’s no-holds-barred biography of the American-born Irish poet acknowledges the cost of a life turned ‘into the achievement of poetry’

Kevin Barry, Aingeala Flannery, Lucy Caldwell and more contribute to ambitious collection

At least one-third of this work is devoted to little-known causes of death — famine and famine-related diseases

Denouncing ‘Zionism’ as a uniquely malign force allows people to imagine they are ‘punching up’ rather than falling for the ‘socialism of fools’

Illness, marriage, colonialism, animals, Swiss wealth and Eritrea feature in works by Johanna Ekström, Astrid Roemer, Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin, Jean Giono, Christian Kracht and Baalu Girma

A taster of the finest books as Gaeilge for adults and children published over the past year

The Story of a Gamechanger by Robert McCrum; collaborative short-story collection Duets; and Defiance: Racial Injustice, Police Brutality, A Sister’s Fight for the Truth by Janet Alder with Dan Glazebrook