The best new books to leave under the tree this Christmas
Ten books published in 2024 that will make perfect presents for the readers in your life
John Banville
John Banville at the Prado in Madrid: ‘I’d say the Caravaggio in Ireland is a lot better’
Writer is one of a group of novelists taking residence in apartment overlooking acclaimed museum
David Marcus, The Irish Times and a golden age of literary journalism
Even at a time of much cross-fertilisation between the literary and journalistic worlds, it was a brave and radical idea to run a regular creative-writing page in a daily newspaper. In pursuing this, David Marcus nurtured many young talents
Crime fiction: John Banville’s Strafford and Quirke return, though lesser characters almost steal the show
New from John Banville, Yasmin Angoe, Jean Hanff Korelitz and Will Dean, plus some seasonal Hanukkah noir
The Guide: The Corrs, Dublin Book Festival, Cork film festival and other events to see, shows to book and ones to catch before they end
November 2nd-8th, 2024: The best movies, music, art and more coming your way this week
John Banville: ‘I expected to be dead, or at least gaga, by now’
Author on his new book, The Drowned, his enduring appetite for writing as he nears 80, and the most remarkable place he has visited
Natural Magic: Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin and the Dawn of Modern Science by Renée Bergland – A rich and rewarding study
Though they never met, Darwin and Dickinson shared a visceral sense of the world as a living entity
Writers pay tribute to Edna O’Brien, whose fearless honesty changed Ireland
President Michael D Higgins among those saluting a ‘superb writer possessed of the moral courage to confront Irish society’ who has died in London at 93
Fiction to look out for in 2024: Returning favourites, a fearsome degenerate, and Ireland’s trailblazing all-woman rock band
New novels by Roddy Doyle, Colm Tóibín and Marian Keyes are among the works in the pipeline, along with eagerly anticipated debuts by Ferdia Lennon and Scott McKendry
‘I was heart jealous of the French girl my age at the next table’: Irish writers’ most memorable meals
From chicken and chips in foggy Venice, to the simple beauty of a tomato and an egg
Dublin Marathon misattributing a quote to Yeats makes a mockery of him and his Nobel Prize
Presenting runners with a tribute to Yeats featuring a line he almost certainly never said is an embarrassing travesty for a city that prides itself on its literary heritage
The best books of 2023 so far: Anne Enright, Joseph O’Connor, Liz Nugent, Colm Tóibín and more have their say
We round up some opinions on the finest reads this year which you might think worth bringing on holidays with you
Retroland: A Reader’s Guide to the Dazzling Diversity of Modern Fiction – A critical machete wielded mercilessly
Salman Rushdie, Hilary Mantel, John Banville and Roddy Doyle might wince at some of the judgments contained within
Claire Kilroy: ‘I haven’t met one mother who didn’t talk about failure’
The novelist talks about about the release of her first novel in more than a decade, on the struggles of motherhood that had stopped her from writing for so long
Crime round-up: From Dennis Lehane’s ‘tough Irish broad’ to Margot Douhaiy’s New Orleans nun
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane; Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater; The Wintering Place by Kevin McCarthy; Cast a Cold Eye by Robbie Morrison; and The Lock-Up by John Banville
When a ‘dungeon’ on Leeson Street cost £2 a week and swarmed with literary life
A new book explores Dublin’s literary past, an active part of living or working in the city
Marlowe — Liam Neeson and a game cast mostly make something juicy of hard-boiled private-eye staples
Film does not offer convincing re-creation of noir aesthetic but worth making your own mind up about
Liam Neeson on his 100th movie: ‘If I’d been asked in Ballymena in 1969 if I’d be sitting here… I never thought I’d be so lucky’
The Antrim actor plays the latest incarnation of Philip Marlowe in Neil Jordan’s new film
Harry Potter and Sally Rooney among most borrowed library books last year
Children’s titles take up 19 of top 20, as Rooney’s latest novel is most borrowed adult title
The Singularities by John Banville: A masterly raising of old ghosts
The Irish novelist’s devotees will have enormous fun hunting for allusions and references to works from his other books
John Banville: ‘I’m 76 now, and I’m as baffled by the world as I was when I was five’
The Singularities, his new novel, may be the acclaimed author’s final work of literary fiction. If not, ‘I’ll call my next book Sinatra’s Last Tour’
Molecules, metaphors and the place of science in culture
One is contained within the other, but how does that manifest itself?
Emilie Pine: ‘I miss the children I didn’t have. Some people get that and some don’t’
The author’s debut novel draws on her personal experience of infertility and loss
Much-loved Dublin city shop Pen Corner to close its doors
Famous for pens, pencils and stationery, it has been a family business since 1927
‘Don’t read it’: Ireland reacts to Bono’s St Patrick’s Day Ukraine poem
US house speaker Nancy Pelosi read his verse about the Ukraine war on St Patrick’s Day
Lucy Foley: ‘I love a really well-written yarn’
Best-selling author enjoys playing with old crime clichés
When communists took over the Rotunda to fight for Dublin’s unemployed
Liam O’Flaherty led the armed four-day occupation 100 years ago this week
A Covid bonus? Pat Kenny can’t hide his irritation
Radio: The Newstalk host also disapproves of sloppy attire and sloppy thinking
Cormac McCarthy (not) tweeting has been highlight of my summer so far
Karlin Lillington: Platform’s most recent stumble has given publications a delicious silly season angle
Leaving Cert English paper 1: Chadwick Boseman stars in diverse and timely exams
Denise Chaila also featured in contemporary papers that ‘tuned in’ to current moment
House in Joyce’s The Dead to be turned into hostel despite Tóibín appeal
Bord Pleanála approves plans following objections from authors, poets and An Taisce
Harry Crosbie: ‘My book is an attempt at capturing a world which is now gone’
The developer of Dublin’s docklands on his literary debut and his friend Richard Ford
Neil Jordan: ‘I couldn’t make The Crying Game today’
The director on his new historical fiction novel, Harvey Weinstein and ageism in film
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