'The four Irish books I have chosen from last year reminded me, in different ways, that what we say is always tied to where and when we say it.'

Lily Ní Dhomhnaill Criticism 11th April 2024

'In this respect, The Maniac is as much about the present as the past [...] Von Neumann’s delusions, filtered kaleidoscopically via the imagined reminiscences of those who knew him, prefigure the madcap fantasies of today’s transhumanists, accelerationists and techno-optimists.'

Luke Warde Criticism 19th March 2024

‘If Nomenclature, principally comprised of Brand’s previous collections, is fundamentally a recollection of things past, it is also a timely reiteration of the need for different futures.’

Inés García Criticism 16th January 2024

‘Their anti-Wild Women narrators yearn to return to society, to recover full citizenship there. They are aware that they had something once, and that they have lost it.’

Emily McBride Criticism 30th November 2023

New fiction explores existential longing with K-pop and cephalopods.

Roisin Kiberd Criticism 25th October 2023

‘With this strikingly intimate approach, we are invited into Sharpe’s project of sifting through the frustrations, the injustices, ‘the wake’ of Black life in order to better spend time with the beauty of Blackness, to explore the quiet of Black interiority that so often goes ignored or unremarked.’

Gustav Parker Hibbett Criticism 27th September 2023

‘The contemporary novel form appears, increasingly, to be the domain of slim, introspective works. The appearance of a sprawling novel like The Bee Sting seems significant.’

Stephen Cox Criticism 30th August 2023

‘How is it that while real wolf populations have receded, two-legged ‘wolves’ proliferate? What is the connection between these living, breathing creatures and the popular, metaphorical, and imaginary uses we give them?’

Mònica Tomàs White Criticism 27th July 2023

‘Greek Lessons is a puzzle... I’m unable to decide whether some truth about language has been excavated in the book—but also whether that was ever the point.’

Lisa McInerney Criticism 8th June 2023

‘Janet Malcolm wasn’t so much a critic as a journalist, an actual journalist—by which I mean, an investigative reporter—who rang people up or met them in person, composed and asked questions, took notes, owned one Dictaphone at least.’

Kevin Breathnach Criticism 5th April 2023

In this fine set of essays, Colm Tóibín's ebullience and intelligence is consistently apparent.

Adam Coleman Criticism 8th February 2023

‘One requires only a few moments in the Cohenverse to grasp that here is perhaps the only person in the world with the discipline, intelligence, and voracity to render even the most exacting of inner critics speechless.’

Sydney Weinberg Criticism 25th January 2023

‘Negative Space is a memoir of sorts, a record of a time of life and its catastrophes, but its main concern is contemporary art. Or, rather, the embodying of those spirits and effluents given off by art.’

Niamh Campbell Criticism 8th December 2022

‘His pain is made approachable, relatable, interesting—whatever else he may be, Carrère is always good company.’

Ian Maleney Criticism 23rd November 2022

‘What to write about a new work that does not entirely excite or thrill, from one of the most exciting and thrilling writers of the last ten, twenty years?’

John Patrick McHugh Criticism 8th June 2022

Louise Kennedy's mordant debut novel is visceral, powerful, and full of compassion.

Mary Morrissy Criticism 20th April 2022

In an oeuvre of funny and, at times, caustically angry books, 'The Trees' might be Percival Everett’s funniest and angriest yet.

Tadhg Hoey Criticism 30th March 2022

Saba Sams's vibrant collection explores the narratives we construct for ourselves—and the narratives others construct for us.

Susannah Dickey Criticism 16th March 2022

Fran Lock's latest collection is a multivocal hybrid affected by grief, longing, rage, abjection.

Emer Lyons Criticism 1st December 2021

In Keith Ridgway's luminous new novel, the economic circumstances of his characters infect their confidence, their relationships, their self worth. They own nothing—not even their own stories.

Nicole Flattery Criticism 15th November 2021

"We love Ross O'Carroll-Kelly! Should we?" — Kevin Power considers the evolving fates and functions of the Ross O'Caroll Kelly novels, which to date have sold over a million copies.

Kevin Power Criticism 30th October 2021

Bebe Ashley's debut poetry collection "is an ambitious meditation on music, fandom, projection, and yes, Harry Styles".

Kimberly Reyes Criticism 30th September 2021

Lisa McInerney finds many wonders in Tice Cin's transgressive debut novel which "dodges the usual rules of storytelling".

Lisa McInerney Criticism 16th September 2021

As an "informal experiment", Kevin Power examines Megan Nolan's debut novel – and its reviews – and reflects on the purpose and meaning of literary criticism.

Kevin Power Criticism 23rd June 2021

In Neil Jordan's new novel, the author invents the psyche of an enslaved Black person, "a task as ambitious as it is awkward for a white man to do".

Kimberly Reyes Criticism 12th May 2021

To sit through Adam Curtis's latest offering is to experience a work of art that is alternately lush, oneiric, austere, startling, thrilling, amusing, persuasive, shocking, glib, beautiful.

Kevin Power Criticism 15th April 2021

Conor O'Callaghan's "propulsive" novel is about the process of coming to see—coming to understand—the recent past.

Tara McEvoy Criticism 31st March 2021

If a Kevin Barry character declares themselves a romantic, they’re generally headed for trouble.

Naoise Dolan Criticism 10th March 2021

Steve McQueen’s films are steeped in the political, and in the complicated humanity and inhumanity of ordinary people pushed to the extraordinary.

Kimberly Reyes Criticism 24th February 2021