The latest titles reviewed
Gilead Marilynne Robinson Virago, £7.99
Rev John Ames Robinson, already old and waiting for death, addresses by letter the man his small son of a late second marriage will one day become. US writer Marilynne Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for her first novel, Housekeeping (1981). She won another for this beautiful second novel, which was welcomed on publication by US readers as the moral, humane story that America, and the world, so desperately needs. In the kindly, sympathetic John Ames, Robinson has created a narrator majestically suited to her subtle, unsentimental vision. Explaining his own father's fraught relationship with his father - Ames's grandfather - Ames is speaking as much about a divided America as a divided family. Seldom has such a gentle, graceful narrative delivered such a powerful polemic about war's ugly legacies.
Eileen Battersby
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Time Warner, £6.99
Dan Brown meets Bram Stoker in this atmospheric thriller. Kostova resurrects the legend of Vlad "The Impaler" Tepes, the real Count Dracula, who, we gradually learn, is alive and still active. A young American girl, living with her diplomat father in Amsterdam in 1972, finds on his bookshelf an old book with the image of a dragon and a package of old letters, each one addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor". Reluctantly, over the course of several trips father and daughter make together in Europe, he reveals the story behind them, which involves a search for the unknown location of Vlad's tomb. This search brought her mother and father together and may have cost the life of her father's mentor and friend. There are far too many visits to dank crypts in medieval monasteries for my taste but fans of vampire tales will love this large slice of high quality hokum.
Cathy Dillon
The Granta Book of Reportage Edited and with an introduction by Ian Jack Granta, £9.99
The updated third edition of this anthology brings together a collection of eye-witness reports and investigations which have all appeared on the pages of Granta magazine. This is old-fashioned journalism with a literary touch covering some of the major events of recent times. The pieces are lengthy, taking time and space to explore and explain. Heavyweights like John Simpson, John le Carré and James Fenton feature. Less familiar but no less gifted names examine Mumbai society, the strange life of a holocaust "survivor" and the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq. The killings of IRA members in Gibraltar and the Sellafield story are investigated with forensic care, and there's a heart-rending account of workers bussing to work in pre-apartheid South Africa. With its vivid, eloquent writing, this collection should be read by anyone with an interest in first-rate journalism.
Eoghan Morrissey
Disney War by James B Stewart Penguin, £ 9.99
Disney War is another salutary tale from the megalomaniacal money pit that is Hollywood. Stewart's detailed and forensic approach reveals a large corporation run like a medieval fiefdom by a Machiavellian Prince, Michael Eisner. Eisner took control of the company in 1984 and within a decade profits had multiplied 10-fold. He and his brilliant, if overbearing, right-hand man, Jeffrey Katzenberg, churned out hit after hit including The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. In one year alone Eisner earned $250 million dollars, making him the highest paid executive in America. Stewart expertly reveals the peculiar recipe Eisner concocted to achieve success; a mixture of financial prudence, promised but undelivered promotions and back- stabbing. Of course, Katzenberg was first for the knife, quickly followed by Michael Ovitz, supposedly Eisner's best friend.
Ken Walshe
Connections by Sheila O'Flanagan Hodder Headline Ireland, £10.99
Welcome to the White Sands Hotel, a Caribbean island paradise catering to its guests' every whim. As O'Flanagan's characters pass through each other's vacations, cocktails and the languid sun encourage some surprising revelations. For thriller writer Corinne, whose writer's block has drawn her to the idyll, the location is meant to aid mental rejuvenation. For bride-to-be Jennifer, the island is the setting for her "perfect" wedding. In the resort's exclusive Coco Villa, pop princess Sahndhi, who used to be just plain Sandi, is trying to outrun the paparazzi and maintain her identity through the media frenzy. And then there's chatty PA Dee, one of the most lost and lonely people on the island. In a community of strangers willingly trapped on a tropical island not everybody has a happy story to tell, but some will see their dreams come true.
Claire Looby
A Farewell to Arms? Beyond the Good Friday Agreement Edited by Michael Cox, Adrian Guelke and Fiona Stephen Manchester University Press, £20
The Northern Ireland Peace Process has now lasted almost as long as the War Process did before it. But why did the Peace Process start when it did? What were its real achievements? And why were some expectations from the heady late-1990s not fulfilled? Answers to such questions are offered in this impressive volume, a significantly expanded version of a book originally published in 2000. The 28 chapters of this revised collection consider victims and agents of violence, unionism and nationalism, education and Europeanisation, international dimensions and much else. Contributors come from academic but also from active political life, and the editors have done a fine job in gathering together great expertise over such a wide range of topics.
Richard English