A novel 'written by a man who’s a dentist by profession but has the heart of a writer'
This week there’s a mixed bag, something for everyone including the very young.
Great Irish Road Trips, Nicola Brady, Gill Books, €12.99
Published just in time for summer and aimed at people who can take time off to discover the Irish countryside, this is a neat little book that promises some spectacular road trips through the four provinces. And that’s the way the book is laid out, province by province. Which means if time is tight, you might want to stick to trips not too far from home but if it’s a travelling holiday around the country you’re after, this has everything you need. The routes are mapped (though a roadmap is a good idea too, not everywhere has a good phone signal) and everything from the remotest spots to the cityscapes is included.
Wrong Side of the Street, Pat Byrne, Orpen Press, €29.99
A must for history lovers and those with a penchant for the public interest, this book tells the incredible story of a street in Carrickmacross where the ground owners were up to recently still charging rent. These are British ground owners who have been doing so since the 19th century. Such laws should have been snuffed out with our independence but instead have remained intact. It’s incredible stuff. Pat Byrne has spent years researching and collating the information for this book and has done a superb job in producing it, along with an extensive index and relevant appendices. They say truth is stranger than fiction but few truths about Carrickmacross – and other spots around the country too, from Waterford to Donegal – top this. The stories and case histories in this book are jaw-dropping.
The Shadows of Betrayal, Anne Frehill, Poolbeg, €17.99
It’s September 1939 and Britain has entered WWII. Thousands of Irish flee their homes in the UK, including Pearl Allen, to return to neutral Ireland. Pearl gets a job in a Dublin hotel, the upmarket Willington House Hotel, owned by Irish American Edward Moloney. Pearl is to become Moloney’s PA and finds herself falling in love with him. It seems the feelings are mutual, until a poison-pen letter arrives, throwing Pearl and Edward into a tailspin. Then Edward is kidnapped, a ransom is demanded, and Pearl begins to realise she’s caught up in a world of spies and Nazis who are using the hotel as a discreet hideout. This historical novel is a fine mix of romance and political thriller, and Frehill maintains the balance with brio.
The Visit, Neil Tully, Eriu, €16.99
This is a remarkable debut novel set against the visit by JFK to Ireland in 1963, just a few months before his assassination. The amount of responsibility that rains down on Garda Sergeant Jim Field of New Ross is a perpetual headache. But he’s also suffering from a perpetual physical headache and when he seeks medical help he doesn’t get any relief. Among those many responsibilities is Jim’s personal one, towards a local young man living on the outskirts of town, Patrick Hatten. Patrick has recently lost his mother, his father died some years ago in the local asylum, the hellhole of St Senan’s.
Jim can’t shake off the guilt he feels because of his involvement with Hatten Senior, a man who had harmed nobody but yet was carted off to the loony bin, as so many thousands were in mid-century Ireland. Young Hatten is now adrift, with nobody looking out for him except Jim, and with his homestead being overrun by local businessman-cum-bully Peter Casey, who wants the Hatten homestead and will stop at nothing to get it.
That’s the outline of the plot, but this novel is so much more than plot. It follows, in alternating chapters, Jim, who’s far too decent to be a policeman and Hatten, who is the local outcast in a backward, rural community where families are reared for the emigration boat. And the writing is simply sublime. If you’re a fan of Donal Ryan, you will love this tender and compassionate novel written by a man who’s a dentist by profession but has the heart of a writer.
Children’s Corner
Three books, all published by Puffin, have appeared on the bookshelves within the last month and they’re all geared at very young readers.
Father and son Dan and Finn Ojari are responsible for Is This A Plum? It’s a charming picture book and a clever idea, depicting objects and animals as one thing, but then revealing them as something else entirely, prompting a kind of call-and-response experience for the rugrats.
Patricia Forde and Paddy Donnelly collaborate on The Island of the Bees, a story of volcanoes, storms and dragons drawn from Irish mythology. Orla and her grandmother live peacefully on a beautiful island where they tend to their bees. But a rumbling in the earth means they need to leave the island in a hurry and find somewhere else to settle. Orla travels the seas, guided by her buzzing friends, having adventures along the way.
In Huw Aaron’s Monkeypig, we meet Molly, who lives in the jungle with all the other monkeys and spends her days being silly in the treetops. But Molly has a secret. She’s not a monkey at all; she’s a pig. Head Monkey Norman begins having suspicions that there’s an infiltrator in their midst and so sets the monkeys various tests to find the culprits. Will Molly be found out? And what will happen to her if she is? Funny and imaginative, the youngsters will love it.
Footnotes
Starting this coming Friday, May 15, and running until May 24, Dublin’s International Literature Festival is always a calendar highlight for bookworms and continues to draw big crowds every year, so if you’re interested in tickets, you need to get cracking. Details at ilfdublin.com.
The Fastnet Film Festival in Schull is a five-day celebration of Irish and international short films, featuring screenings, industry workshops, panel discussions, live music, outdoor screenings, and a vibrant fringe programme. It’s running from May 20 to 24 and details are at fastnetfilmfestival.com.