JAMES WALSH is moved by an exhibition of graphic art that relates horrors that would be much less immediate in other media
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The high art of suffocating in a small town
FIONA O’CONNOR relishes an artfully restrained novel whose style is perfectly in tune with the petit bourgeois existence it portrays
ROMANTIC SETTING: Enniscorthy from east
RON JACOBS welcomes the translation into English of an angry cry from the place they call the periphery
GUILLERMO THOMAS recommends a useful book aimed at informing activists with local examples of solidarity in action around the world
HENRY BELL is provoked by a book that looks toward, but does not fully explore the question of who gets to imagine the shapes of cities to come
MATTHEW HAWKINS surveys the upcoming programme of contemporary dance in Glasgow, and picks some highlights
‘Chance encounters are what keep us going,’ says novelist Haruki Murakami. In Amy, a chance encounter gives fresh perspective to memories of angst, hedonism and a charismatic teenage rebel.
Long Island
Colm Toibin, Picador, £20
THIS is a gorgeous summer read, a subtly crafted love story by the masterful Colm Toibin. For book fetishists the hardback version is a covetable object in itself, with its elegant jade and coral covers.
Colm Toibin is one of Ireland’s most successful writers. His bestseller Brooklyn established him as a global author, amplified by the release of a Hollywood movie version of the same title. 20 years on, Long Island resumes the story of Eilis, the girl who emigrated to Brooklyn in the cause of duty, leaving behind her one great love.
In order to enjoy Long Island you don’t need to have read the prequel, but you can find fascinating threads holding between these two books; the reading of both gives a richer sense of some of the characters and their motivations.
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FIONA O’CONNOR steps warily through a novel that skewers many of the exposed flanks of the over-privileged
ANDREW HEDGECOCK relishes visual storytelling with no respect for genres, movements or styles
Our homegrown literary scene seems stuck in a bit of a middle-class bubble with a key sector deeply unrepresented in the stories it tells: retail workers. Ireland and the US do much better, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
FIONA O’CONNOR treasures the work of Edna O’Brien for the depth of evocation of psychologies, desires and losses among ordinary lives