The latest titles reviewed
The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000. Diarmaid Ferriter. Profile Books, £12.99
Ferriter's impressive survey of 20th-century Ireland is history in the broadest sense. It looks not just at political narrative but at social and cultural questions too: family, arts, economy, education, class and religion. Sources used by the author are extensive, including wide reading of other scholars' work, original digging in the archives, and attention to literary material. Ferriter provides a valuable distillation of what we think we know about the last century, and he does so with admirable balance. Irish achievements are rightly celebrated. But - again, rightly - the book does not lay the blame for Irish problems casually at Britain's door: "After the creation of the Free State in 1922, blaming outside forces was no longer credible." A fine book. Richard English
Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya. Caroline Elkins. Pimlico, £8.99
This is a well-researched academic history of the British Empire's efforts to conceal, contain and defeat the Mau Mau Rising in Kenya during the 1950s and 1960s, illustrating the seclusion, brutality and despair of life in a totalitarian state. Beginning with early native mobilisation over issues including female circumcision in the 1920s that lit the slow burn to independence, Elkins captures the degradation and soul of a repressed people determined to break the chains of colonisation. Following the land-grabs that rewarded the British military and career civil servants, among others, the narrative taps into the nuances and superstitions of Mau Mau "oathing" and secrecy that led to the orchestration of a murderous campaign against the unwelcome coloniser and the particularly brutal backlash that the actions precipitated. Full of concentration-camp testimonials and stories of torture, murder and cover-up, this is a worthwhile examination of Kenya's tribulations. Paul O' Doherty
An Only Child and My Father's Son. Frank O'Connor. Penguin, £8.99
This reissue of Frank O'Connor's two volumes of autobiography, which have been hard to obtain for some time, is welcome. The early life of Michael O'Donovan (his real name) resembles in some startling respects that of a now much-better-known writer, Frank McCourt, as Declan Kiberd notes in his introduction. Born into poverty in Cork, with a feckless father and a devoted mother, O'Connor's circumstances do not seem to have been as dire as McCourt's, but nonetheless he was severely disadvantaged. Having emerged from that background, O'Donovan, like McCourt, eventually took the US route - but only much later, in a fascinating life that involved working for the IRA, internment, librarianship, close involvement with Yeats on the board of the Abbey Theatre, and battles with the censorship board. This book ends with his resignation from the Abbey in 1939 and his determination to be a full-time writer. It is accompanied in the Penguin Modern Classics series by an equally handsome reissue of a selection of O'Connor's stories. Terence Killeen
Elvis, Jesus and Me. Emer McCourt. Virago, £6.99
Emer McCourt is a late recruit to fiction writing, but not for want of creative impulses; although this is her debut novel, she is an accomplished film actor and producer. Straightforward in its construction, the novel centres on an inseparable duo: Seany and his sister, tomboy Ger Devlin. Set in a grim estate in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles, the children's story, narrated by Seany, is an innocence-to-experience journey accelerated surprisingly little by the sporadic appearance of a violent alcoholic father, the odd sniper and some threatening paramilitary activity. As is only right, the two are more concerned with keeping dopey friends out of trouble, Elvis, football, first kisses and Ger's announcement that she is, in fact, a boy - a decision she comes to after due consideration and the application of a particularly choice prosthesis. Charming and funny, Elvis, Jesus and Me is the work of a promising new Irish writer. Nora Mahony
Snow. Orhan Pamuk. Faber and Faber, £7.99
An erstwhile political exile and poet, Ka, returns home to work for the Istanbul "Republican" broadsheet. An assignment takes him to the remote border town of Kars to cover the local elections. Kars is a town scarred by the suicide of several young women, their actions linked to the debate over the wearing of headscarves in schools. Pamuk takes us to the heart of a major Turkish dilemma, where the extremist forces of Islam struggle with the secular government's desire to drag the country further westward. Ka, in trying to get to the root of the mysterious deaths, is drawn into an enthralling political thriller as the town is cut off from the outside world by heavy blizzards. Issues of faith, law, truth and love come to the surface, as events expose the fragile and explosive relationship between east and west. Tom Cooney
Loving Him. Kate O'Riordan. Pocket Books, £6.99
Dentists are not often cast as romantic heroes, but for Connie and Greta, who were both his childhood sweethearts at different times, Matt Wilson is just that. As well as being gorgeous, he's a decent man, a reliable husband and a good father to his three boys. Time and place are contemporary suburban London. When the novel opens Connie is back at Heathrow alone, after a weekend in Rome with husband Matt, who has stayed behind after encountering Greta in the American Bar. The focus of the novel is on conscience as much as on whether Matt stays with his wife and family or takes up with Greta, and the author makes an engaging case for the appeal of both options. Kate Bateman