Books

Book ReviewsFighting Words

International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist: women dominate list that ‘reverberates with history’

Novels transport readers from 1930s Japan-ruled Taiwan to Nazi-controlled Europe, from magic and domesticity in 1990s France to the Iranian Revolution in 1979

By Martin Doyle

The Visit by Neil Tully: Lyrical debut novel asks what happens to those left behind

The News from Dublin by Colm Tóibín: Stories by a writer with complete command of the craft

Fiction in translation: City Like Water; Women Without Men; X is Where I Am; You Are the Fuhrer’s Unrequited Love

Louise Nealon: ‘I’m exploring an energy of misogyny that we all participate in’

Sheila O’Flanagan: Losing family members makes you aware of how fragile our connections are

James Joyce - A Political Life by Frank Callanan: Depth and detail over a wide historical canvas

Book reviews in brief: A Better Death; Wilderness of Mirrors; The Throats of Birds

SHORT STORIES

POETRY

Tana French: ‘In Ireland, things are coded. You don’t necessarily have the code when you arrive’

Tana French: ‘In Ireland, things are coded. You don’t necessarily have the code when you arrive’

By Peter Murphy

What We Tried to Bury Grows Here by Julian Zabalbeascoa: traumatic Spanish Civil War impact captured

What We Tried to Bury Grows Here by Julian Zabalbeascoa: traumatic Spanish Civil War impact captured

By Julian Girdham

Poem of the Week: No 1, Grand Canal Quay

Poem of the Week: No 1, Grand Canal Quay

By Catherine Phil MacCarthy

Our Martin and All the Dead Voices: two republican takes on three decades of violence

Our Martin and All the Dead Voices: two republican takes on three decades of violence

By Mark Hennessy

Muskism: essential to understanding where we are and how we got here

Muskism: essential to understanding where we are and how we got here

By Ian Hughes

Elemental by Arthur Snell: how climate change influences who holds world power

Elemental by Arthur Snell: how climate change influences who holds world power

By Sinéad Gibney

We Need to Talk about Roy by Dave Hannigan: Game effort, but Roy Keane is no Katie Taylor

We Need to Talk about Roy by Dave Hannigan: Game effort, but Roy Keane is no Katie Taylor

By NJ McGarrigle

Fintan O’Toole and Sam McBride win Christopher Ewart-Biggs Literary Prize

Fintan O’Toole and Sam McBride win Christopher Ewart-Biggs Literary Prize

By Martin Doyle

As If by Isabel Waidner: the absurdity of living with your shadow self

As If by Isabel Waidner: the absurdity of living with your shadow self

By Huda Awan

The Shortest History of Ireland by James Hawes: Unorthodox, accessible, deeply impressive

The Shortest History of Ireland by James Hawes: Unorthodox, accessible, deeply impressive

By Neil Hegarty

Red Dawn Over China: Frank Dikötter revisits Communist rule before 1949

Red Dawn Over China: Frank Dikötter revisits Communist rule before 1949

By Isabella Jackson

The First Ghetto: Venice and the Jews by Alexander Lee: Stunning account of a dark history

The First Ghetto: Venice and the Jews by Alexander Lee: Stunning account of a dark history

By John Banville

‘My mother found love letters written to my father by another man when pregnant with her fourth child’

‘My mother found love letters written to my father by another man when pregnant with her fourth child’

By Alex Clark

The Library of Traumatic Memory by Neil Jordan: Immediately engaging kaleidoscopic read set in 2084

The Library of Traumatic Memory by Neil Jordan: Immediately engaging kaleidoscopic read set in 2084

By Val Nolan

Crime fiction: From a disturbing revenge story to a Romanian detective in an absurd bind

Crime fiction: From a disturbing revenge story to a Romanian detective in an absurd bind

By Brian Cliff and Elizabeth Mannion

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