Blood on the Snow: The Russian Revolution 1914-1924 by Robert Service (Picador, £30)
Robert Service returns with another solid outing on a subject that’s been his life’s work: 20th century Russia and the years surrounding the October Revolution. Once again his scholarship is admirable (on shortages facing the provisional government in July 1917, “a decision was made to allow the import of 420 million safety matches in boxes containing no more than 75 matches”). At times his writing style is laboured – as anyone who has read his LST biographical triptych on Lenin, Stalin, and Trotsky will attest – but the book would be a fine choice for someone approaching such a rich period of history for the first time. For Russophiles it will feel like retreading a familiar terrain, despite several contemporaneous diaries mixed in adding welcome flavour to the facts. NJ McGarrigle
Fray by Chris Carse Wilson (Harper North, £14.99)
Set in the Scottish Highlands, Fray is a literary thriller with creepy aspects of folk horror. A man has gone missing in search of his dead wife. He has left behind a series of notes that their adult child follows in an increasingly desperate attempt to find him. Wilson is clearly a talented writer. Fray is a lyrical and acutely descriptive book written in a series of short bursts in a style reminiscent of the verse novel. Unfortunately, this reader never succeeded in entering the lonely world of the novel, tinged with grief and the protagonist’s diminishing mental health. Unable to keep up with the intense pace of the text or fully empathise with the unnamed characters, I felt like an onlooker in it all. Other readers may enjoy Wilson’s experimental style more. Brigid O’Dea
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Dreams; 50 Years of Creativity, Culture and Community at the University of Limerick, edited by Joseph O’Connor, Eoin Devereux and Sarah Moore (Irish Academic Press, €29.99)
In a collection of contributions that includes short story, essay, poetry and even a series of Tweets, Dreams celebrates the vibrancy of the first university established since the foundation of the Irish State. The University of Limerick is 50 years old and testament to its success are the enduring relationships that UL maintains with many of its staff and alumni. While this book may be of more niche interest to those connected to the university or city, it must be commended for its diversity of contributors. Voices include Michael D Higgins, Donal Ryan and Denise Chaila, and the equally important voices of students, porters, kitchen staff and researchers from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines. Equally impressive is the book’s important representation of the Irish language. The book’s title speaks the tale. Brigid O’Dea
