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Saturday, November 27, 2004
[Irish Aires] - Read Ireland
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Irish Aires on KPFT-FM, 90.1FM Saturday Nights 6:30PM
Now on the internet. You are on the Irish Aires Email ALL list
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Here is the second special issue of the Read Ireland Book Review,
in which we offer a selection of Irish novels and poetry books as
ideas for Christmas. There are a plethora of very high quality
Irish-subject books available this year and we are very eager to
assist you in your decisions. Please let us know what you are
seeking. You can, of course, also order them for yourself!
Sincerely, Greg @ Read Ireland.
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Read Ireland Book News – Gift Ideas for Christmas 2004 – Irish
Fiction & Poetry
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Ulysses: A New Reader's Edition by James Joyce, edited by Danis
Rose
Trade Paperback; 30.00 Euro / 36.00 USD / 24.00 UK; 768 pages
Even before its first publication in 1922, Ulysses dominated the
literary landscape. It has generated diverse and animated
responses from readers and critics alike, eliciting superlatives
both positive and negative. Encompassing everything human –
urination, defecation, masturbation, crepitation, menstruation,
fornication, insemination, paturition and expiration – it entered
the world as at once the most obscene and the most brilliant of
novels wherein Joyce strove to answer the question that bedeviled
him: Is life worth living? To this end Joyce immersed himself in
the Dublin of 1904, in a ludic procession of minor characters,
and in his cast of principal players – the artist (Stephen
Dedalus), the man in the street (Leopold Bloom) and the woman who
said yes (Molly Bloom) – fashioning a sustained, unparalleled
tour-de-force of writerly genius.
------------------------------------
The Master by Colm Toibin
Hardback; 25.00 Euro / 32.00 USD / 18.00 UK; 360 pages
In this brilliant and profoundly moving novel, the author tells
the story of Henry James, an American-born genius of the modern
novel who became a connoisseur of exile, living among artists and
aristocrats in Paris, Rome, Venice and London. In January 1895
James anticipates the opening of his first play in London. He
has never been so vulnerable, nor felt so deeply unsuited to the
public gaze. When the production fails, he returns, chastened,
to his writing desk. The result is a string of masterpieces, but
they are produced at a high personal cost.
The author captures the exquisite anguish of a man whose artistic
gifts made his career a triumph but whose private life was
haunted by loneliness and longing, and whose sexual identity
remained unresolved. Henry James circulated in the grand
parlours and palazzos of Europe, he was lauded and admired, yet
his attempts at intimacy inevitably failed him and those he tried
to love.
The Master is Colm Toibin\'s most accomplished and powerful novel
to date. It is a portrait of a man who was elusive to both
friends and family even as he remained astonishingly vibrant and
alive in his art - a searching exploration of the hazards of
putting the life of the mind before affairs of the heart.
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Havoc, in its Third Year by Ronan Bennett
Trade Paperback; 17.50 Euro / 21.50 USD / 12.50 UK; 244 pages
England in the 1630s – an unsettled country in turbulent times.
People are gripped by fear: fear of crime, or foreign invasion,
of Catholic conspiracies, of the vagrant poor. In a town in
northern England, a group of Puritan reformers tightens its hold
on the lives of its inhabitants.
John Brigge is the local coroner, a respected man who wants
nothing more than to work his farm and be with his wife, now
expecting their first child. But when he is called to
investigate an infanticide, Brigge finds himself drawn
unwillingly into a vicious power struggle. Katherine Shay, a
fiery Irishwomen, stands accused of killing her baby. The
Puritan faction demands her immediate execution. Brigge suspects
their haste has little to do with justice. What are they hiding?
Does he really want to know? Against a background of looming
crisis, Brigge struggles between his desire to protect his family
and the need to see justice done. And he is haunted by the
mystery of Katherine Shay.
Powerful, dramatic and utterly gripping, this is a superb novel,
justly long-listed for the 2004 Man Booker Prize. Its canvas is
large, its characters full-blooded, its atmosphere apocalyptic.
Like the best historical novels, it vividly captures the period
yet resonates with the present. (Also available in Hardback at
27 Euro)
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The Swing of Things by Sean O\'Reilly
Trade Paperback with Flaps; 16.50 Euro / 20.00 USD / 11.00 UK;
302 pages
Noel Boyle needs a new life and he has come to Dublin to find it.
He dreams of transformation and renewal. But as he struggles to
overcome his loneliness and to keep despair at bay his attempts
at change seem futile and almost comic. One thing offers the
possibility of salvation: a woman. Boyle starts a relationship
with Eleanor, who is beguiling yet remote, playful yet serious in
her suggestion that he return to England with her. Can he take
the chance or will it be the excessive street-poet Fada who, by
tempting hum back into the violence of his past, will determine
his future? All the while the face of a young woman pulled from
the Liffey haunts his mind and awakens an ancient rage in his gut
… Ablaze with stories of lives lived and lost, this novel is a
darkly beautiful meditation on the idea of escape and what it is
that keeps us tethered to the world.
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Ireland: A Novel by Frank Delaney
Hardback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 18.00 UK; 470 pages
One evening in 1951, an itinerant storyteller, the last of a
fabled breed, arrives unannounced and mysterious at a house in
the Irish countryside. By the winter fireside he begins to tell
the story of this extraordinary land: Ireland. One of his
listeners, a nine-year-old boy, grows so entranced by the
storytelling then, when the old man leaves, he devotes his life
to finding him again.
It is a search that uncovers both passions and mysteries, in his
own life as well as the Storyteller's, and their solving becomes
the thrilling climax of this tale. But the life of this boy is
more than just his story: it is also the telling of a people, the
narrative of a nation, the history of Ireland in all its drama,
intrigue and heroism.
The novel travels through the centuries by way of story after
story, from the savage grip of the Ice Age to the green and
troubled land of tourist brochures and news headlines. Along the
way, the reader meets foolish kings and innocent monks,
god-heroes and great works of art, shrewd Norman raiders and
strong tribal leaders, poets, politicians and lovers. Each
illuminates the magic of Ireland and the eternal connections of
its people to the land.
A novel of huge ambition, beautifully told, the book is the
unstoppably readable story of a remarkable nation.
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Shade by Neil Jordan
Hardback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 18.00 UK; 317 pages
Nina Hardy has been murdered. She died in the house where she
grew up, killed by George, her childhood friend. But her body is
never found, and she remains, a silent shade, watching the events
of her own afterlife. She watches her half-brother Gregory as he
arrives to bury her, after some thirty years away; and Janie as
she attempts to elicit a confession from George, her brother.
Through them Nina will relive their lives together, and somehow
begin to make sense of the people they all became.
This is a story of imaginary friends and hayrides, of plays and
school dances, of a seemingly idyllic childhood by the mudflats
of the River Boyne. But the outside world cannot be kept at bay,
and the fragile balance of their friendship is soon interrupted.
Ultimately they will be torn apart by the outbreak of war,
brought together again only to find that each other has changed
almost beyond recognition.
This novel is at once an unforgettable portrait of childhood, a
powerful story in its many forms, and a moving tragedy of lost
innocence. Written with astonishing insight and perception, it
confirms Neil Jordan as one of the most mesmerizing voices in
contemporary Irish fiction.
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Where Rainbows End by Cecelia Ahern
Trade Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 400 pages
From the no. 1 best-selling author of PS, I Love You comes an
enchanting novel about two childhood friends whom fate and
destiny cannot help toying with...From naughty children to
rebellious teenagers, Rosie and Alex have stuck by each other
through thick and thin. But just as they are discovering the joys
of teenage nights on the town and dating disasters, they are
separated. Alex and his family move from Dublin to America - and
Alex goes with them, for good. Rosie is lost without him. But on
the eve of her departure to join Alex in Boston, Rosie gets news
that will change her life forever - and keep her at home in
Ireland. Their magical connection sees them through the ups and
downs of each other\'s lives but neither of them knows whether
their friendship can really survive the years and miles - as well
as new relationships. And at the back of Rosie\'s mind is whether
they were meant to be more than just good friends all along.
Misunderstandings, circumstances and sheer bad luck have kept
them out of each other\'s arms, but when presented with the
ultimate opportunity, will they gamble everything - including
their friendship - for true love? Destiny, Alex and Rosie
discover, is a funny thing and fate is not quite done with them
yet...
------------------------------------
Nights of Rain and Stars by Maeve Binchy
Hardback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 18.00 UK; 250 pages
Four strangers, with nothing in common but a need to escape, meet
in a Greek taverna high about the small village of Aghia Anna.
From Ireland, American, Germany and England, they have each left
their homes and their old lives, when a shocking tragedy throws
them unexpectedly together.
Fiona is a young nurse, trying to make her family understand her
need to follow her own path. Thomas desperately misses his young
son and fears that his ex-wife will come between them. Elsa
abruptly left her career as a television presenter, but someone
from her past refuses to let her go. And shy, quiet David is
determined to make a stand against his overbearing father. With
these four is Andreas, the taverna owner, who badly misses the
son who left home nine years ago and has never returned.
This novel is the story of one summer and four people, each with
a life in turmoil. With the help of Vonnie, a middle-aged
Irishwoman who lives in the village and is now a near-native,
they find solutions – though not necessarily the ones they
anticipated.
Ireland's Maeve Binchy is one of the world's most successful and
best-loved authors. Read all over the world and translated into
30 languages, worldwide sales of her books now exceed a
staggering 40 million copies.
--------------------------------------
Dispatching Baudelaire by Ken Bruen
Trade Paperback; 8.00 Euro / 10.00 USD / 5.00 UK; 160 pages
Throughout his life accountant Mike Shaw has played it safe, kept
his head down, and avoided risk. His girlfriend, Brenda, is a
secretary and their idea of a night on the town is to visit the
local pizza parlour. But when Mike meets Laura in a bar off The
Strand, their lives are irrevocably changed. Small, smart, sexy
-and utterly dangerous - Laura instantly spellbinds Mike and
leads him into a world of moral depravity, dominated by the
sinister presence of her powerful and rich father, Harold Benton.
Dressed in safari suits, dining in West End restaurants, Benton
drinks only the best of wines and whiskies, imitates Richard
Burton, and quotes French poet Baudelaire at every opportunity.
He is also without conscience, on a hell-bent mission to mould
others to his likeness.
This book is about what can happen to the blandest of men when
seduced by money, power and sex. As the reader follows Mike on
his journey into the heart of darkness, he comes to discover that
there are few more dangerous animals than an Englishman off
balance. Set against the paranoia of the early 1990s
post-Thatcher London, this is yet another addictive page-turner
from the prolific Irish author.
---------------------------------
A Bit on the Side by William Trevor
Hardback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 17.00 UK; 244 pages
'Then, for the forty minutes that were theirs, they spoke of
love: as it had been for them, as it still was, of its
confinements, necessarily so, its intensity too, its pain, the
mockery it had so often felt like, how they had never wasted it
by sitting in silence in the dark of a cinema or sleeping through
the handful of nights they'd spent together in her flat. They
had not wasted it is lovers' quarrels, or lovers' argument. The
did not waste it now, in what they said … '
This is the author's first collection of short stories since the
award-winning 'The Hill Bachelors' was published in 2000.
Tender, touching and beautifully humane, the dozen new stories
contained here explore the subject of adultery, and tell of
secret passions, domestic infidelities, office romances, and the
broken and unbroken rules of love.
---------------------------------
Fillums by Hugh Leonard
Hardback; 20.00 Euro / 24.00 USD / 15.00 UK; 232 pages
The year is 1942, and Drane is the most boring town in Ireland.
There is no public transport, and someone is scrambling the
wireless signals; Mrs. Miniver is banned by the censor; and there
are no half-crown hops at the locked-up town hall. The only
diversions are the shows put on by the local amateurs, the
Standing Ovations, and the old films at the Picture House. But
if life is full, last evening's 'fillum' is always worth
re-lovings, as 'Perry' Perry and his wife Babs, recently arrived
from Dublin, soon discover. Beautifully written, infused with
warmth, with and its author's infectious love of the movies, this
is the new novel from the master of Irish letters.
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Irish Writing: An Anthology of Irish Literature in English
1789-1939 edited by Stephen Regan
Paperback; 19.00 Euro / 23.50 USD / 11.00 UK; 550 pages
Evoking a traumatic century and a half, this anthology spans 150
years of modern Irish culture, from the dawning of a powerful
nationalist consciousness in literature to the waning of the
Irish Literary Revival after the First World War. With a
wide-ranging and generous selection of fiction, poetry, and
drama, this book unites these disparate works into a collection
that is sometimes rebellious, often subversive, invariably
charged with emotion, and always alive with startling imaginative
energy. It has a rare depth and range of scope, and contains
much that is difficult to obtain elsewhere.
-----------------------------------
Moy Sand and Gravel by Paul Muldoon
Paperback with flaps; 12.00 Euro / 15.00 USK / 8.00 UK; 90 pages
Winner of the Pulitizer Prize for Poetry 2003. This ninth
collection finds the poet working a rich vein that extends from
the rivery, apple-heavy County Armagh of the 1950s, where he was
brought up, to suburban New Jersey, on the banks of a canal dug
by Irish navvies, where he now lives. (One Hardback First Edition
in Stock: Priced at 50 Euro)
------------------------------------
These Days by Leontia Flynn
Paperback with flaps; 12.00 Euro / 15.00 USD / 8.00 UK; 52 pages
This collection represents on the most strikingly original Irish
poetry debuts in recent years. A Gregory Award winner, the poet
- still in her twenties - writes about Belfast and the north of
Ireland with a precision and tenderness that is completely
fresh.
-------------------------------------
Thank you for your support! It is important that if you are
considering ordering any of these books that you do so through
Read Ireland in order that the newsletter continues!
To order books from the Read Ireland Book Review you can send an email to
the order department at:
greg@readireland.ie
Please be sure to include your mailing address and credit
card details.
You can of course also post your order to:
Read Ireland, 392 Clontarf Road, Clontarf,
Dublin 3,Ireland.
Telephone and Facsimile number is: +353-1-830-2997.
Read Ireland Web Site Home Page: http://www.readireland.com
All Prices and Rates are in Euro (US Dollar and UK Sterling
prices are guidelines based on current exchange rates.)
Euro prices on books reviewed above are firm. Post +
package is charged at cost.
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