What are writers writing, readers reading and publishers publishing today? Read these insightfuland illuminating book reviews by JamesLawless, an award-winning writer and respected critic of thecontemporary world.'Lawless is an insatiable reader, a gifted scholar and a natural philosopher.' The late Brendan Kennelly, poet.'Has a classy turn of phrase.'Sunday Independent.

When Mariana Rivas arrives from Spain to work as an au pair in the Dublin home of the Mac Converys, Garda Inspector Fionn Mac Convery tries to seduce her. In the course of avoiding Fionn, Mariana experiences the mean streets of Dublin city and meets some of the characters who in his ambitious rise in the police force have been damaged by him. There are suspicious links with Mac Convery and the murder of the father of the taxi driver Sam Sinclair whom Mariana befriends; and perhaps equally ...

A young boy in the old Liberties of Dublin learns about growing up through his handicapped cousin and a strange bookseller

Why does the mysterious Mr Washington slowly demolish a suburban house? 'A surreal blend of black humour, metaphor and gritty but exquisitely executed urban squalor, which for all its ingenuity never loses the soul of its story.' The Sunday Business Post.

When Laura Calane of New York comes to Ireland to further her studies and to live in what her father considers a safer environment after 9/11, she discovers that the land of her ancestors is not the haven she had believed it to be. When she meets social worker Danny Faraday, she is torn between her attraction towards him and the emotional blackmail of her uncle Thady who is domiciled in Ireland and who never lets her forget that he saved her father's life in a terrorist attack in New York....

When university student Guido van Thool accidentally bumps into the beautiful ballerina Anna Zweig in Loti's café, it sets them off on a whirlwind romance of ballet concerts, anti-globalisation marches and love trysts in bluebell woods. Even when Guido is called away for military service, time can't test their faithfulness, as they keep their passion warm with love letters. Paralleling their lives, however, is that of Judge Jeremiah Delahyde, a profligate positioned in power by his crony, ...

The mean streets of Dublin and powers that be lurking. A man known to wear a wig in his exemplary life roams the dark streets of the city exploiting the weak and vulnerable. And who is the hooded figure who has to pick up the pieces for him, perpetuating the age-old problem?

A scantily-dressed girl dancing in a lighted window jolts Francis Copeland from his world of books. Francis, now approaching middleage, whose life and marriage are in a rut, fantasises about the girl and finds it hard to accept, as he discovers later, that she is Judy, a dancer in the local pub. The hidden world of the avenue unfolds to Francis. Who is Myrtle, his wife? (Does she genuinely go to bingo every Tuesday night?). He does not know her. Who are the real parents of the street kid F...

A vulnerable bachelor is blackmailed sexually.Knowing Women is observationally and psychologically acute. It is also a lot of fun. You knew this middle aged graphics artist with an Eastern European bisexual lap dancer girl friend was headed for trouble and I enjoyed observing his tribulations. I recommend this book very much and hope to read more of the work of Lawless.Mel Ulm from his blog The Reading Life.'His ability to treat the ultra-ordinary with a surgeon's for...

Contemporary poems of rural and urban life with some translations by the author of Irish and Spanish poems.

Jo Jo is an endearing but sometimes mischievous little girl of eight years. She has a great imagination. She can talk to animals and she loves the woods where many of her adventures take place. Find out how the deer Rudolf got his red nose or what a crab turns into at the seaside or what happens to Jo Jo when she gets lost in the city or when she is whisked off to a magic kingdom. Sometimes Jo Jo can be scary too as in the spooky tale of The Moving Door Handle. Here are stories that will a...

During a long hot summer a young man, inspired by Bobby Darin's Dream Lover, becomes infatuated with a beautiful girl only to make an emotionally-wrenching discovery.