Coming off the back of reading more than my fair share of European crime-fiction (culminating with Stieg Larsson’s posthumuous sales-phenomenon The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) - a genre where plot, reasonably enough, is tight and pragmatic, where the reader must above all else understand what’s happening - it was a palate-cleansing delight to dive [...]
A medieval Irish monastery under siege by the forces of darkness, who find their breach in the cell of the unfortunate brother Fursey, a monk blessed with a stammer who thus can’t adequately perform the rites of exorcism required to keep the monastery safe.
The premise alone, regardless of the excellent execution, should be enough to [...]
You probably wouldn’t pick one of Northern Ireland’s best known poets, academic - and traditional music enthusiast to boot - to be the novelist to have translated the spirit of the internet into book form. In Shamrock Tea (2001) though Ciaran Carson has, in my humble view, done exactly that - and there’s not a hint [...]
A short selection of our favourite lit blogs
For the full list go to our literary blog links page.
