Category Archives: 101greatreads

Love Many by Niamh Campbell (winner of Sunday Times audio award)

Posted on July 6, 2020 by

IT is scandalous to suggest that this blog is in some way in the pay of the James Joyce Jolly bursary to promote writers of Irish descent. It is true that I took a drink (an obscure poteen derivation) from … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, fiction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor (Secker & Warburg)

Posted on May 26, 2020 by

“All night long he would walk the ship, from bow to stern, from dusk until quarterlight, that stick-like limping man from Connemara with the drooping shoulders and ash-coloured clothes”. I HAD to re-read Joseph O’Connor’s towering fiction on the Irish … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, fiction | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry (Faber)

Posted on April 20, 2020 by

“I am Winona. In early times I was Ojinjintka, which means rose.” SO we are back with those McNulty’s again are we, Sebastian? Another tome in the family history? More about naughty uncle Thomas in Tennessee? Barry’s prose can read … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, fiction | Tagged , , | 1 Comment
Posted on March 25, 2020 by

Ireland’s Green Larder by Margaret Hickey (Unbound) “The island of Ireland is so small you can drive across it in a few hours…yet it became the cradle of literature, music and dance, of politicians and soldiers, of philosophers and saints, … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, Non fiction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

In Love with George Eliot by Kathy O’Shaughnessy (Scribe)

Posted on March 3, 2020 by

“The train had shuddered to a halt. Clatter of doors-opening and shutting, noise echoing in the huge vault of Euston station, a smell of oil-flavoured steam and soot. A last door opens…”  THERE might be a warning on this: do … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, Biography | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin (Daunt)

Posted on February 17, 2020 by

“He arrived muffled up in a woollen coat.” ELISA Shua Dusapin is Korean, Swiss and French all of which infuse this short would-be love story, told in staccato English, as if the grammar were Korean hieroglyphics. Out of season, the … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, fiction | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Scrublands by Chris Hammer (Allen & Unwin)

Posted on February 13, 2020 by

“The day is still. The heat, having eased during the night, is building again; the sky is cloudless and unforgiving, the sun punishing.”   THE journalist as detective sleuth is obvious, if largely uncharted. Maybe there is a mental barrier … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, fiction | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Long Bright River by Liz Moore (Penguin)

Posted on February 4, 2020 by

“There is a body on the Gurney Street tracks.” THE come-on cover copy and graphics suggest this is another crimo-detecto: Move over Michael Connelly. Step aside James Lee Burke. There is a new girl in town. A new town in … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, fiction | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Unauthorised Biography of Ezra Maas by Daniel James (dead ink)

Posted on January 16, 2020 by

“This book is dangerous” Brash, original, smart… star reporter Daniel James chases down the elusive recluse that is Ezra Maas, cult artist, vanished megastar…this is the kind of book destined, I hope, to find a cult following of its own, … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, Biography, fiction | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Agent Running in the Field by John Le Carre (Viking)

Posted on December 14, 2019 by

“Our meeting was not contrived.” I AM on page 278 of 281 and I am still no wiser as to where this whodunwhat of a plot is going. There have been twists and turns and upshots and cross checks so … Continue reading →

Posted in 101greatreads, fiction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment