A selection of paperbacks reviewed by The Irish Times.
Germany Calling: A Biography of William Joyce, Mary Kenny 'Lord Haw Haw' New Island, £9.99
For the paperback edition of this book the subtitle "A Personal Biography" has been dropped. Joyce is no longer called William throughout (the author had initially feared the reader might confuse him with James Joyce), and the text has been updated and revised, although a few editing errors remain. However, these don't necessarily spoil what is an enthralling biography of a man born in America, raised in Ireland and who gained a false British passport that would eventually see him hanged for broadcasting from Nazi Germany. It remains a "personal" biography as Kenny displays a certain compassion for Joyce, and while this brings a humanity to a demonised figure, she is sometimes a little too charitable to a pretty repulsive character. Nevertheless, Joyce's life of misadventure and unusual celebrity remains fascinating and Kenny's account of it is both authoritative and beautifully written. - Shane Hegarty
Robert Emmet: A Life Patrick Geoghegan Gill & Macmillan, €12.99
Geoghegan's biography of Robert Emmet deserves a wide readership but it has been ill-served with this edition. It was a false economy to have it typeset in 10-on-12-point (it was printed in Malaysia). Repeating a slip - "hair-brained" - from John Devoy's Gaelic American in the preface was, well, hare-brained. And what Robert Holmes, Emmet's brother-in-law, said at John Mitchel's trial in 1848 was: "May Ireland be happy, may Ireland be free" (misquoted, page 188). Despite taking the British by surprise in 1803, Emmet's rising was a pathetic failure. But with its penchant for turning victory into defeat, Dublin Castle rejected Emmet's offer to remain silent at his trial if his beloved Sarah Curran went free. His subsequent speech from the dock electrified Irish nationalism three years after the Act of Union. For Pearse, Emmet's sacrifice was "Christlike in its perfection". - Brendan Ó Cathaoir
Double Vision Pat Barker Penguin Books, £7.99
When war photographer Ben Frobisher is killed in Afghanistan, his wife, Kate, and colleague, Stephen, are brought together. While Kate begins her own resurrection with a sculpture of the crucified messiah, Stephen retreats to his brother's cottage near Newcastle, close to Kate's home, to write a book on the presentation of modern warfare. In seeking solace they find themselves, far from the carnage of battle, confronted by a society filled with tensions and conflicts of its own. Soon, as in the portrayal of war, image and reality become blurred as new relationships, past secrets and fresh loss impose themselves on Kate and Stephen's grieving process. Barker's controlled, complex novel challenges ideas of contemporary "civilised society", where respect for life is taken for granted, revealing a world searching for dependence and love yet haunted by death and betrayal. - Tom Cooney
After Theory Terry Eagleton Penguin, £7.99
A number of less influential works, not least those dealing with Ireland, have issued from Eagleton since his ambassadorial Literary Theory (1983). After Theory is an account of Theory's intellectual and practical dividends in the intervening years. Anyone suspicious of pessimistic academic buzzwords such as "post" and "after" should not be discouraged since Eagleton simply means by his title that even though Theory's golden age is long past, and there have been gains and losses, there can be no return to our former cultural innocence. The arguments depend too heavily on a caricature of this innocence and, stylistically, on chi-chi humour and the sly verbal segue. There is plenty here nevertheless to incite us to thought and, like its earlier counterpart, this will probably become a bestseller - loved and loathed in equal measure. - John Kenny
Fatal Silence: The Pope, the Resistance and the German Occupation of Rome Robert Katz Cassell, £8.99
During and for long after the second World War the role played by the Vatican vis-a-vis the German occupation of Rome was shrouded in suspicion. The Allies (and others) believed Pius XII's silence was deafening. Here, Katz sets out to re-enact the events of the 10 months' occupation and what the Vatican did - or did not do. Rome was the focus for four groups, each anathema to the others: the Allies, the Germans, the partisans, and the Pope, who was trying to bring the West and the Germans to terms and save the world from communism (and the Vatican from destruction). Katz's first-hand account of those who endured the occupation, and his gift for narrative, make this book read at times like a thriller. It is a meticulous work of scholarship, extraordinary and occasionally frightening. - Owen Dawson
Beatrice Noëlle Harrison Tivoli Press, NPG
Eighteen years after her sister Beatrice's disappearance, Eithne Kelly's grief has not diminished. There is the fear that Beatrice is dead - but also the hope that she will return one day. Through her etching, Eithne explores her memories of Beatrice, their mother Sarah's grief, how their father Joe's love and frustration affected the three women's lives, and where final resolution to the questions of a lifetime can be found. In a novel imbued with a love of art, Noëlle Harrison deftly leads us through the stories of these three women, their desires and the men they love. Long-kept family secrets reveal themselves in surprising twists that reflect the Co Meath bog that plays such an integral part in the life of the family. Though top-heavy with its landscape evocations, this is still a worthwhile read. - Claire Looby