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Book Review: The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
Set mainly in 1950s rural North Dakota, The Night Watchman is a captivating historical fiction centering around a controversial bill about to be put forward to congress. This bill claims to be about emancipation for Native Americans, but in fact aims to take away what little land they already have. One of our main protagonists,…
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Book Review: A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter
A Grandmother Begins the Story is a powerful and unique novel that tells the story of one fractured Métis family through a chorus of voices. We meet five generations of women, including voices coming through from the afterlife: Carter, Allie, Lucie, Geneviève, Velma and Mamé, with whom our story begins. Alongside their stories runs the…
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Book Review – The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
After having loved Lisa See’s The Island of Sea Women, I was keen to read more by her, and The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane might just have cemented See as a go-to author for me. In a remote mountain village in China, steeped in tradition, ritual and superstition, Li-yan lives and works, farming tea…
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Book Review – I Want To Go Home But I’m Already There by Róisín Lanigan
When Áine’s flatmate Laura moves out to move in with her boyfriend, the natural progression is for Aíne to move in with her boyfriend Elliott. So begins the stressful search for a place to call home. They can’t believe their luck when they find a place, just about in budget, in a trendy neighbourhood; but…
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Book Review – Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh
School is done for seventeen-year-old John Masterson, living on an island off Ireland’s west coast. The summer holidays loom ahead, full of potential and the uncertainty of what comes next. John is determined to make his mark on the football pitch, if he could just find his place in the team and play in the…
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Book Review – The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
The Island of Sea Women, set largely on the remote Korean island of Jeju, is a stunning and gripping story centering around two best friends, and spanning decades. Filled with heartache and hardship, with deep friendship, first love and devastating losses, and set across times of national and global upheaval, this was a story I…
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Book Review – Cork Stories
Cork Stories is a collection of contemporary short fiction set throughout Co Cork in Ireland, from the urban spaces to coastal towns and most rural corners, by writers who live in, or have some strong connection to, Cork. I love this concept for a collection, taking one place and viewing it through a variety of…
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Book Review – Homeseeking by Karissa Chen
When Suchi meets Haiwen as children in 1930s Shanghai, she is immediately drawn to the small, quietly self-assured boy. Wrapped up in his world of music, he dreams of being a violinist, while she dreams of being a singer. A friendship blossoms and before they know it feelings have grown. But Shanghai is under Japanese…
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Book Review – May All Your Skies Be Blue by Fíona Scarlett
When Shauna leaves Dublin City for the suburbs with her mother, Dean enters her life as part of a soon-to-be-inseparable foursome of friends navigating the trials and tribulations of adolescence. The spark of friendship quickly blossoms towards something more for Shauna and Dean but, with their own struggles and ties pulling them separate ways, they…
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Book Review – Mouthing by Orla Mackey
Mouthing is a series of confessional monologues, deftly sewn together, from voices hailing from one village in rural Ireland, which is ‘just about as good and as bad as you’ll get anywhere’. Divided into sections, illuminating different generations and points in time, each section explores a different story or situation from several different perspectives, inching…
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The Resting Willow 