What Willow Says
Lynn Buckle
Epoque Press, €9.99
Revealed through a series of journal entries, this story of the relationship between a young grandmother and her eight-year-old deaf granddaughter, as they explore the watery world that surrounds them, living at the edge of the Bog of Allen, is heartrendingly beautiful. Communicating through a mix of home sign, lip reading and official sign language, the pair explore the sights and sounds of tree, river and bog. Buckle's intricate prose and luminous imagery make this short book a deliciously long read. Each sentence is to be savoured, each word rolled in the mouth. A word of warning: Buckle is a writer of great emotional depth. The waters of the bog seemed to rise from the page and pour out of my eyes. This book will change forever the way you look at bogs, frogs and deafness. – Estelle Birdy
Heavy Light: A Journey Through Madness, Mania and Healing Horatio Clare
Chatto & Windus, £16.99
Horatio Clare describes his hypomania on a family skiing holiday, followed by a "manic Christmas", separation from family, smoking too much cannabis, drinking too much alcohol, crashing his car, wandering naked, arrested by police, assessed and discharged. It's stunning – and frightening – how long it took for him to be hospitalised. A third of the book details his 23-day treatment. When bipolar disorder is diagnosed and lithium recommended, he's reluctant as he believes cannabis-use is the origin of his illness and worries lithium will affect his creativity as a writer. Part two discusses mental-illness treatment in detail. Deeply grateful to those who helped him, he wants his story to offer hope, help and insight to those who suffer breakdowns and those who love and care for them. – Brian Maye
Outrageous Horizon
Adrien Bosc, translated by Frank Wynne
Serpent's Tail £14.99
Outrageous Horizon makes extensive use of writings by, among others, Victor Serge, Anna Seghers, Claude Lévi-Strauss and André Breton to examine the conditions on board a ship carrying passengers from the imminent threat of Nazi persecution. Bosc uses the available material to imagine sharply diverging class experiences which are exacerbated when the ship lands in Martinique. For Breton, there is a moment of serendipity when he discovers the political and surrealist magazine Tropiques, in the window of a haberdasher's shop. For all those who have travelled, the knowledge that their lives are always at the mercy of others is ever-present. With humane and enlightening use of the available material, Bosc has created a deeply intellectual novel that also manages to be both humane and fascinating. – Declan O'Driscoll
Havana Year Zero
Karla Suárez, translated by Christina Mac Sweeney
Charco Press, £9.99
Did Antonio Meucci, while living in Havana, invent the telephone before Alexander Graham Bell? The search for a sheet of paper on which his diagrams demonstrate irrefutable proof is the basis for this novel, narrated in a conversational fashion by Julia, a character with connections to many of those who may possess the document. The deceits and imbroglios which result from playing these people against one another, along with Julia's own self-justifying double-standards, make for a terrifically enjoyable read but also serve to bolster a view of post-USSR Cuba as a country which, by 1993, can no longer hide the failures of its promises. As Julia states: " Each of us holds within us the discontent of society and every one of it reproduces it." – Declan O'Driscoll
Empty House: Poetry and Prose on the Climate Crisis
Edited by Alice Kinsella and Nessa O'Mahony
Doire Press
Nature and art have always been the perfect bedfellows; beautiful, yet grotesque, beacons of hope and destruction. In this multi-genre anthology of Irish and international writing, artists respond to the climate catastrophe. The responses are hopeful, fearful, urgent, tender and healing. They capture the magnitude and simplicity of our world – and the chaos humankind has unleashed upon it. "We are detached; too busy in the bubble of business-bustling, side-hustling, girl-bossing to notice the stench of smoke", Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi writes in the striking poem Smoke and Mirrors. Empty House features an impressive array of voices, including Jan Carson, Rick O'Shea and Paula Meehan, although it would have been nice to see some Gaeilge included, given the connection between conservation and indigenous language. – Brigid O'Dea
Pedro and Ricky Come Again
Jonathan Meades
Unbound, £30
More than 30 years of writing is gathered here, and the consistency in quality and style are remarkable. As is the voice; for this is old-fashioned "got-his-back-up" backed with encyclopedic knowledge writing. Meades cleaves any silly notions proffered us by the chancers, the spivs, the bluffers, the bumph brigade. Take your pick: buildings, religion, painters, grub, fake grandioso grubbers. It's writing that has a pop; essaying that puts its pint glass down with a slam, then offers you another. There's positive appraisals, too, and even when a subject feels recondite, Meades leads the reader happily onwards, such is the moreishness of his words. Positively curt and classy. – NJ McGarrigle
