Irish Times reviewers cast a critical eye over the latest batch of paperbacks including Wordsworth: A Life in Letters by Juliet Barker and Salman Rushdie's Step Across This Line: Collected Non-Fiction 1992-2002.
Hieroglyphics and Other Stories. Anne Donovan, Canongate £6.99
My heart sank a bit when I saw that most of these stories were written phonetically in strong Glasgow-ese, but they're worth the effort. In those narrated by children, especially the title story, about a little girl with a learning difficulty, the vernacular somehow accentuates their appealing mix of canniness and innocence. Sentimentality bubbles at the edges of some stories but more often they make you smile wryly or wince in recognition. These are tender tales of everyday woes, most told from a female perspective: a little girl prepares for her father's funeral; a wife prepares to tell her husband she has cancer; an elderly woman grapples with the gradual loss of her faculties. The latter, as well as the final story, in which an old woman finds new purpose through "zimmerobics", shows that Donovan can write older characters as well as tough little tykes. - Cathy Dillon
Wordsworth: A Life in Letters. Juliet Barker, Penguin £9.99
In this deeply sympathetic book, Juliet Barker provides a unique glimpse into the life and times of Wordsworth. Through the many letters written by the bard and those closest to him, in particular his wife, Mary, and sister, Dorothy, Wordsworth is revealed as a complex yet decent man. Barker carefully selects and arranges the letters, allowing the epistolary style to flow, interspersed only briefly by narrative summaries to help guide the reader. Wordsworth emerges as a man capable of radical thought, toiling with his art, seen most intriguingly in his obsession with his great unfinished work, 'The Recluse'. His is a soul filled with intense passion, distraught at the loss of his two infant children and suffused with love for his family. In addition, the friendship between Wordsworth and the damaged genius Coleridge cannot fail but to excite the imagination. - Tom Cooney
The Easter Parade. Richard Yates, Methuen £6.99
This gritty novel, by the author of the classic Revolutionary Road, chronicles the lives of two sisters from suburban New York. Emily lives most of her adult life in Manhattan with one foray into Idaho, while Sarah, after her marriage, fetches up on Long Island. The novel, first published in 1976, has few social details - no shopping, no debutante rituals. Instead, like, Madame Bovary, The Great Gatsby and Buddenbrooks it takes the reader through the minefield of chance that shapes lives. The world of writing - Mr Grimes, the girls' father, is a headline writer for a New York daily, Emily writes advertising copy and both girls make a few attempts to write magazine pieces - is just brush-stroked in. But it hints that being a writer is a less solemn, less important and a far less romantic occupation than it is cracked up to be. However, in this novel the writing is so deft, so lucid and so clean that we read on, and on. - Kate Bateman
I'm Not Scared. Niccolò Ammaniti, trans Jonathan Hunt, Canongate £6.99
Prize-winning young author Niccolò Ammaniti's third novel has taken Italy by storm. It's the chilling tale of a boy's hideous discovery in a hole in the ground, in sun-bleached southern Italy. Further distanced from his isolated community by the secret he keeps, Michele, far from being a product of his society, proves to be an uncommonly compassionate, selfless, and devoted child. Although the theme of innocence lost is well developed, Ammaniti's is hardly a cloying coming of age novel, his evocative prose exposing the depth and breadth of a dreadful situation for Michele and his village. With influences including Stephen King, J.G. Ballard and Alex Garland, Ammaniti engages elements of classical tragedy with eerie grace, the forces of good and evil, darkness and light clashing at every suspenseful turn. - Nora Mahony
Step Across This Line: Collected Non-Fiction 1992-2002. Salman Rushdie
Vintage £7.99
As the title suggests, this is a book concerned with crossing both metaphorical and literal frontiers. The evolution of mankind, through freedom, is a necessary adjunct to our existence as a species. In this collection of Rusdie's non-fiction from his "plague years" under the Ayatollah's fatwa, a courage is borne out of an absolute conviction in the truth of his views on human rights and freedom. A genuine humour is evident in his appreciation of the diurnal - the man with a bounty on his head sees all, hears all and feels all. He lives intensely, grateful for every day, whether onstage with U2 or canvassing world leaders' support. The essays, notes and columns in this book reveal a man dedicated to living and in love with his ar,t and a human being unsure about his immediate future but determined to fight for a better tomorrow. - Mark McGrath
Chopin: The Funeral. Benita Eisler, Abacus £7.99
In this absorbing book, Benita Eisler manages to chronicle the life of Frédéric Chopin in little over 200 pages. Lauded by critics when it first appeared, it's remarkable for its brevity - without sacrificing any of the delicious detail of the composer's life and art. The book opens with an evocative depiction of the composer's quasi state-like funeral after a brief and tragic existence. Plagued by ill-health throughout his life, Chopin died of consumption, at 39, estranged from the woman with whom he had spent most of his time: the French novelist George Sand. Each episode of the composer's life is explored: his Polish roots, his exile in Paris where he was embraced by its social elite and revered by his contemporaries such as the painter Delacroix. Most space , however, is devoted to analysis of the affair with Sand and to an exploration of the creation of Chopin's music. - Sarah Dobson