Paperbacks

The Four Elements by John O’Donohue. Transworld Ireland, £8.99

The sudden death in 2008 of the landscape writer, poet and spiritual thinker John O'Don-ohue halted his literary output at four books of prose and two of poetry, just as he was beginning to make a major name for himself on the international scene. For anybody who already owns everything from the bestselling Anam Cara to the book of blessings O'Donohue published just before he died, Benedictus, this attractive paperback, complete with a very personal foreword by his brother Pat, will be a welcome addition to the shelf. The Four Elements is actually a kind of prequel, a quartet of early, often brief, reflections on earth, air, fire and water. But O'Donohue's gentle humour and tolerance are present in abundance, as well as some surprises, including a passage on poitin – "like drinking liquid dynamite" – and, of course, beautifully crafted observations of the natural world. ARMINTA WALLACE

Brooklyn Heights by Miral al-Tahawy. Faber & Faber, £12.99

An Egyptian woman moves to Brooklyn with her eight-year-old son following her marriage break-up. President Obama has just been installed in the White House, and in this “hopeful place” everything seems possible to newly arrived Hend, who wants to be a writer. Back in Egypt she was a teacher; the only work she can find in New York is at Dunkin’ Donuts, and the English phrases she learns are those of poverty (“buy one, get one free” and “coupon”). It is tempting to wonder if the novel is at least semiautobiographical: al-Tahawy was born in Egypt and is now a lecturer in North Carolina, and she conveys both the vibrancy and the hardships of Brooklyn’s immigrant communities with a realistic eye. By novel’s end, Hend’s optimism has been replaced by an acceptance of life’s limitations, and the reader is left to ponder how many others have been left disillusioned by the American dream. FREYA McCLEMENTS

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. Black Swan, £8.99

Larson, the historian who famously writes like a novelist (most spectacularly in The Devil in the White City), tells the surprising true story of William Dodd, a Chicago academic who, in 1933, is pressed by Franklin D Roosevelt into serving as the first US ambassador to Hitler’s Third Reich. Relocating to Berlin with his wife and two grown children, Dodd is soon at odds with the wealthy old boys’ club in the state department, even as he finds his own mild anti-Semitism shaken by the blatant thuggery of the Nazi regime. Urged by FDR to stay in the post, Dodd eventually rises to the job of defending American interests while doing what he can to undermine the Nazis. Larson’s novel is atmospheric if somewhat less than riveting, especially in his decision to focus equally on the ambassador’s daughter Martha, a vivacious socialite who flirts recklessly with both National Socialism and communism. KEVIN SWEENEY

Forbidden Lessons in a Kabul Guesthouse by Suraya Sadeed. Virago, £8.99

Suraya Sadeed, the Afghanistan-born daughter of a one-time governor of Kabul, created a new and prosperous life for herself in the United States after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. However, personal tragedy brought her back to Afghanistan with a resolve to help rebuild a country ravaged by years of conflict under the mujahideen. Appalled by the suffering she witnessed, particularly of those in the refugee camps, she created Help the Afghan Children (HTAC) in 1993, raising thousands of dollars to provide humanitarian aid, healthcare and education. Braving warlords, drug runners and Taliban rule, she created underground schools for Afghan children, so that by 2011 some 100,000 were being educated by HTAC. Education is the core of her mission.This compelling memoir is a testament to one woman’s tenacity in the fight against prejudice and deprivation. MICHÈLE FORBES

Gealach by Seán Mac Mathúna. Leabhar Breac, €9

It is always a literary occasion when the name of Seán Mac Mathúna, one of the Irish language’s most gifted writers, appears on a book. Mac Mathúna’s stories and novels demand to be read. His latest novel, Gealach, is one of his shorter books, which could be accurately classed as an adventure story. Mac Mathúna sets the action in Nova Scotia rather than Ireland, and the main character is a racehorse called Gealach, or Moon. An accident on a ferry sees Gealach cast into the water, much to the consternation of her owners, who are in debt and need both her and the foal she is carrying to save the financial day. It is left to the twins, Jack and Liz, to save the family farm from the bank and Gealach from being turned into horsemeat, in a story that sits comfortably somewhere between Ros na Rún and Black Beauty. PÓL Ó MUIRÍ