23rd February 2023
‘It is hard to think, that’s Kelman’s point, but you have to. Your freedom depends on it. The problem is that when you start to think, which is usually when the bad stuff starts to happen, when you fuck up or you get fucked, and who can say which comes first, you realise that the words you use to think are not your own, they have been shoved down your throat. You have to learn to think for yourself. In your own terms.’
8th February 2023
In this fine set of essays, Colm Tóibín's ebullience and intelligence is consistently apparent.
25th January 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.’
8th December 2022
‘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.’
23rd November 2022
‘His pain is made approachable, relatable, interesting—whatever else he may be, Carrère is always good company.’
8th June 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?’
20th April 2022
Louise Kennedy's mordant debut novel is visceral, powerful, and full of compassion.
30th March 2022
In an oeuvre of funny and, at times, caustically angry books, 'The Trees' might be Percival Everett’s funniest and angriest yet.
16th March 2022
Saba Sams's vibrant collection explores the narratives we construct for ourselves—and the narratives others construct for us.
25th January 2022
Sean O'Reilly on the reissue of Thomas Kinsella's ‘Butcher's Dozen’ to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday: “a timely reminder that the past has to be fought for and poetry is not beyond lending a hand.”