The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain by Kazuo Ishiguro (Faber, £17.99)
Here we have lyrics of 16 songs written by Kazuo Ishiguro for Stacey Kent, which were set to music by Jim Tomlinson. Ishiguro is a well-known novelist, but started out as a songwriter; in his introduction, he asserts that he sees a clear line between his songs and his novels, and it’s fascinating how he traces that line and the “unique benefits” he sees the early songs bestowing on the later novels: fondness for a first-person voice, information obliquely released, placing of emotion between the lines rather than on the surface. Beautifully illustrated by Bianca Bagnarelli, these lyrics remind us of some of Ishiguro’s characteristic themes – memory, love, travel, music’s haunting qualities – and are full of yearning, melancholy and the romance of travel, and of what might have been. Brian Maye
Ireland 1970-2020 by Colum Kenny (Gretton Books, €9)
This is a succinct historical, social, political and cultural overview of the island of Ireland in the past half-century. It’s the second of a series of country surveys (Britain was the first), and is aimed at the 16-24 age group. It must have been challenging for the author to write for a British and Irish readership, and to cover both parts of Ireland simultaneously, but he rises to the challenge well. Given that for 30 years “the Troubles” plagued Northern Ireland, it’s probably inevitable that that region gets a bit more attention than the Republic. Nonetheless, all the major events and the people behind them are there, and what stands out significantly is the extent of the changes that have taken place, especially in the South. Brian Maye
My Animals and Other Animals by Bill Bailey: Tales of the comedian’s feathered, furred and scaled friends
Poem of the Week: Gó gan Ghá/Unnecessary Lie
The Scribes of March: in praise of writers’ groups
A Benedict Kiely Reader: Drink to the Bird and Selected Essays review - Words on the importance of place
Car Bombs and Barrack Busters by Dan Harvey (Menma Books, €18.50)
Dan Harvey wrote this book to tell the previously untold story of “that quiet, unassuming cadre” of the Irish army, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams (better known as the bomb squads), “whose skill and dedication proved a critical first line of defence against terrorist bomb-makers” at home and abroad. The EOD Unit was established in 1969 following the spillover of the Northern Ireland “Troubles” into the Republic. Rather than tell their story chronologically, he presents a series of individual narratives related first-hand by the EOD men themselves. These individual narratives, told self-deprecatingly and often with black humour, are captivating and display the calm, single-minded courage of the speakers, especially when they had to don a “bomb suit” and take the “long walk” to engage manually with a device. Brian Maye
