Fiction

Don Quixote is the best book out there on political theory, followed by Hamlet and Macbeth. There is no better way to understand the tragedy and the comedy of the Mexican political system than Hamlet, Macbeth and Don Quixote. They're much better than any column of political analysis.

Subcomandante Marcos

Wednesday, 29 June 2022 16:24

The working class liberates itself: Review of 'Joe Stafford: A Tale of Revolution', by Charles Andrews.

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Fiction

When is the last time you read an exciting story about the working class engaged in determined and successful struggle? This is just what Charles Andrews sets out to do in his newly published novelette Joe Stafford: A Tale of Revolution. Not only is the working class largely excluded from…

Sunday, 10 April 2022 09:21

Culture for All: Why Children's Literature Matters

Written by Kim Reynolds

in Fiction

As part of the Culture for All series we're proud to present a short film about children's literature by Kim Reynolds, followed by the text of her talk Why Children’s Literature Matters People often ask me why I study children’s literature. The question comes from the misconception that children’s books…

Hans Christian Andersen Black Lives Matter classism Jacqueline Wilson

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Friday, 08 April 2022 12:54

Lost People, Spaces and Places: The 2022 Crime Novel

in Fiction

Written by Dennis Broe

Dennis Broe reports back from the recent Quais du Polar crime writing festival One of the largest International Crime Writing Festivals in the world, the Quais du Polar, just closed in Lyon, France. The subject on many writers’ minds was, surprisingly, not the Ukraine, though the war was ever present,…

Quais Du Polar Szymanski Manotti Indriðason McDermid Unigwe Joy De Cataldo

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Sunday, 03 April 2022 09:42

The purest light attracts the most impenetrable darkness: Hex, by Jenni Fagan

in Fiction

Written by Jim Aitken

Jim Aitken reviews Hex, by Jenni Fagan, published by Birlinn There can be little doubt that part of the success of Jenni Fagan’s previous novel, Luckenbooth (2021), can be attributed to the way she managed to evoke Edinburgh’s Old Town with its grey tenements, cobbles and closes. In her recent…

Witchcraft communism

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 26 February 2022 21:48

A Timeline of Women: Letting Go, by Gerda Stevenson

in Fiction

Written by Jim Aitken

A short story collection can, in certain respects, be seen as similar to a poetry collection. If the individual stories, like the individual poems, are well conceived and well written then they can stand alone. However, when they are considered in their entirety it only then becomes apparent what the…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Tuesday, 01 February 2022 17:58

Ulysses

in Fiction

Written by Jenny Farrell

Jenny Farrell celebrates Joyce‘s Ulysses, on the centenary of its publication On James Joyce’s 40th birthday, Sylvia Beach in Paris published his now most famous work, Ulysses, written in Trieste, Zurich, and Paris, 1914-1921. That was on 2 February 1922. It had appeared in excerpts in the US magazine The…

Monday, 24 January 2022 10:08

The Magician, by Colm Tóibín

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Fiction

Jenny Farrell reviews Colm Tóibín's latest novel There are many books, including biographies, of Thomas Mann as well as about other members of the Mann family. There are far fewer novels about this writer. Now Irish novelist Colm Tóibín has presented us with just this. His novel about the magician,…

Sunday, 23 January 2022 08:57

Review of A Fire In My Head

Written by Moya Roddy

in Fiction

The book is available here

Saturday, 15 January 2022 19:23

In search of the Marxist novel

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Fiction

30-year-old Irish author Sally Rooney has been in the headlines following her refusal to grant the translation rights of her new novel Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021) to the Israeli Modan publishing house. Seventy prominent writers backed her decision in a statement in November. In May, Rooney had been…

Sally Rooney Conversations with Friends Normal People Beautiful World, Where Are You?

Tuesday, 14 December 2021 16:41

A Hello to Arms

Written by Paul Simon

in Fiction

Paul Simon reviews the latest novel from Dennis Broe, A Hello to Arms Fresh from exposing the murderous and duplicitous Hollywood of the immediate post-war period, Harry Palmer finds his next commission broadly doing the same for California’s other boom sector of the time: aircraft manufacturing. As with Dennis Broe’s…