Books

Book Reviews
Miriam O’Callaghan’s best books of the year, and Sophie White’s, Dr Marie Cassidy’s, and Joseph O’Connor’s too
Britain
Obituary: John Carey, literary scholar and a waspish critic who railed against intellectual snobbery
Books
‘You cannot eat a better sweet’: the story of Lemon’s Pure Sweets in Dublin
Books
Winter Papers 11: An anthology of insight and wit, that is occasionally startling

Poet Ciaran Carson’s musings on music and his art in The Brimming World strike a chord
Fri 12 Dec 2025 at 15:30
Eoin Lenihan’s Vandalising Ireland is an impassioned analysis against globalisation and the political elites
Fri 12 Dec 2025 at 13:30
Mixed Up: Black & Irish podcaster Leon Diop’s search for peace and belonging in early noughties Dublin
Fri 12 Dec 2025 at 06:30
‘I’m not able to sleep with happiness so I am completely fecking exhausted’ – Joseph O’Connor on winning Irish Book of the Year
Fri 12 Dec 2025 at 00:15
latest | Author Sophie Kinsella remembered as ‘once in a lifetime author and friend’ following death at 55
Wed 10 Dec 2025 at 17:20
Crime novels and thrillers to read this December including a prescient AI novel from the late Nelson DeMille and his son Alex
Mon 08 Dec 2025 at 06:30
The best books to gift for every type of reader this Christmas
Sat 06 Dec 2025 at 06:30
Celebrating 75 enchanting years of CS Lewis’s Narnia with special editions – and praise from a young reader
Fri 05 Dec 2025 at 15:30
PS You’re the Worst is an entertaining yarn about a tarot card reading gone bad
Fri 05 Dec 2025 at 15:30
Madeleine Keane on books: Marian Keyes offers insights as awards handed out to top literary talent
Fri 05 Dec 2025 at 15:30

Books

Miriam O’Callaghan’s best books of the year, and Sophie White’s, Dr Marie Cassidy’s, and Joseph O’Connor’s too

Obituary: John Carey, literary scholar and a waspish critic who railed against intellectual snobbery

‘You cannot eat a better sweet’: the story of Lemon’s Pure Sweets in Dublin

Winter Papers 11: An anthology of insight and wit, that is occasionally startling

Poet Ciaran Carson’s musings on music and his art in The Brimming World strike a chord

Eoin Lenihan’s Vandalising Ireland is an impassioned analysis against globalisation and the political elites

Mixed Up: Black & Irish podcaster Leon Diop’s search for peace and belonging in early noughties Dublin

‘I’m not able to sleep with happiness so I am completely fecking exhausted’ – Joseph O’Connor on winning Irish Book of the Year

latest | Author Sophie Kinsella remembered as ‘once in a lifetime author and friend’ following death at 55

Crime novels and thrillers to read this December including a prescient AI novel from the late Nelson DeMille and his son Alex

The best books to gift for every type of reader this Christmas

Celebrating 75 enchanting years of CS Lewis’s Narnia with special editions – and praise from a young reader

PS You’re the Worst is an entertaining yarn about a tarot card reading gone bad

Madeleine Keane on books: Marian Keyes offers insights as awards handed out to top literary talent

Banshees, bookworms and beetles abound: the best new Irish children’s books, chosen by Juliette Saumande

Our toddler critic’s favourite picture books, as approved by Madeleine Keane

‘No one had ever explained to me that you had to pay for electricity, and lights, electric heaters, stoves.’ The extraordinary life of communist Decca Mitford

Gráinne O’Brien: ‘Like most teenage girls, I worshipped at the feet of Judy Blume, and still do’

No time like the present: Start your Christmas shopping now with our ultimate Gift Guide

New Irish Writing: You Can Do Hard Things by Sophie Treacy

Unwrap the magic of Christmas with these books for kids of all ages, chosen by Sarah Webb

New Irish Writing: Poetry by Seán Carlson

Thomas Pynchon’s bootleg noir Shadow Ticket lets sentiment and satire share the same booth

What I learned writing my memoir and what other writers say

The late Manchán Magan, Cecelia Ahern and Andrew Porter among the winners at An Post Irish Book Awards

Patti Smith's beautifully elegant memoir is the work of a singular artist

Debut novel set in sun-soaked southern France wins Waterstones Book of the Year

‘As soon as your book goes into the world, it’s no longer yours’ – author Wendy Erskine on her novel being adapted for the screen

David Lynch in John Higgs’s spotlight is a damn fine tribute to a truly unique storyteller

Eoin Ó Broin: ‘I like reading books that combine scholarship with literary craft’

Everything you need to know about the history of the smallest room, and other essential knowledge of the English

‘It was a racket. But it was a racket RTÉ started’ – Myles Dungan on freelance contracts, losing ‘Late Date’ and moving into fiction writing

The Great Gambon – the charismatic Dubliner who started out as a toolmaker and turned into Albus Dumbledore

The Hitler Years: A warning from ­history that we still need to hear on the warped philosophies of the Holocaust

More memories of Gay Byrne on the radio from ‘Give it a Lash Jack’ to Dick Moran’s affair

Shane Lehane’s poetic paean to our past and the ways of our true Celtic souls

Madeleine Keane on books: Congrats to John Banville, Wendy Erskine and why not gift a book to children in need this Christmas?

Bluff, a Scottish gothic thriller by Francine Toon, fails to reach its potential

Flesh by David Szalay review: Booker-winning novel is an absorbing and pacy read but it shouldn’t have won

Anthony Hopkins’s memoir is a forthright portrait of a Welshman who has no truck with ‘touchy-feely’ stuff

Sarah Davis-Goff: ‘My life changes a little every time Tramp Press puts a book out. Our mission becomes a little wilder and deeper’

Mushroom murderer Erin Patterson in the spotlight of three novelists who turned podcast into a true crime read

Shortlist for Nero Book Awards 2025 announced, but no nod for Irish authors

The ­eccentricities of Dumbledore actor Michael Gambon from the woman who was his ‘earwig’

Paddy Kirk: 'Kenny Cunningham came in and I was serving him the day of the Dublin derby. I never brought up that I’d be playing in it'

Karl Ove Knausgaard returns with death, devils and doppelgangers

A new book on the rise of authoritarian states asks why democracy failed to convince, but could delve deeper

Zadie Smith’s sharp essay collection ‘Dead and Alive’ doesn’t tiptoe around hard truths

Margaret Atwood’s doorstop ‘memoir of sorts’ offers a delicious glimpse at the author’s wild upbringing

In Michael Connelly’s latest page-turner The Proving Ground, the Lincoln lawyer is pitted against the chatbot killer

A soaring tribute to the pioneering female aviators who refused to be grounded

Romance and suspicion are ranged against a backdrop of fear, resilience and survival in Derry during the Troubles

Grandson looks to clean Oscar Wilde’s dirty laundry and reveals why he was wrong about the biopic starring Stephen Fry

Boosting our cúpla focal with the help of the original Irish influencer Hector Ó hEochagáin

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The Hitler Years: A warning from history that we still need to hear on the warped philosophies of the Holocaust

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