Novelist and playwright, Sebastian Barry calls Donal Ryan "the king of the new wave of Irish writers" — and here Ryan pulls another rabbit from his glittering hat. Bleak, dark, deceptive, and beguiling, Where Are the Kings delivers a sledgehammer blow to its unsuspecting reader. As the covers close, it is time to draw a deep breath and contemplate, in silence, a plot that is not merely ingenious but deeply penetrating. A bildungsroman, the book follows the tumultuous journey of young Jack in three arresting acts: tempus edax ("time the devourer of things"), tempus fugit ("the flight of time"), and tempus imperator ("time the ruler"). On the cusp of adolescence, Jack is dealt a devastating blow when his mother, Grace, drowns herself. Unable to bear the consequences of his wife's death, Jack's father descends into mental chaos before being dispatched to an asylum in Limerick.
fiction
The Lost Soldiers – Andrey Kurkov
The most celebrated Ukrainian author in contemporary history, and a veritable master of absurdism, is back with an absolute bang! Lost Soldiers bears the Kurkov imprimatur with such exquisiteness so as to leave the reader revelling in the essence of the book long after the covers have come down upon it. At the nub of the plot is the inexplicable and fantastical disappearance of an entire squad of Red Army soldiers (the novel itself is squarely placed in the tumultuous ‘Kyvian’ times of the Bolsheviks and White Army confrontations) from a bathhouse situated in the bustling Halytska Square. The responsibility for solving the case falls upon Samson Kolechko, a young and optimistic investigator who calls the Lybid police station, home.
Stop Dead – Katrín Júlíusdóttir
The world owes a huge debt of gratitude to Katrín Júlíusdóttir for abdicating a thriving political career and instead assume the profession of penning mystery novels. Since leaving politics in 2016, the former Minister of Finance and Economy in Iceland, has admirably reinvented herself as an author of prominence. Her latest book, Stop Dead is not exception to the norm. A racy thriller set in some of the bleak and windswept remote corners of Iceland, Stop Dead is a one sitting breathless read.
The Ossians – Doug Johnstone
The Ossians, is a breezy, nervous and enervating read that leaves the reader not just in a state of excited exhaustion but also permitting her to introspect and reflect upon the weird and wonderful mindset of mankind.
DEPARTURE(S) – JULIAN BARNES
A hymn to the acceptable, nay inevitable foibles of mankind, an exhortation to look within, harbouring neither regret nor remorse.
Chasing Homer – László Krasznahorkai
Apocalyptic, paranoid, and frenzied, Chasing Homer is unlike anything I have read before. In fact, it may be unlike anything many have ever read before.
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop – Satoshi Yagisawa
(Image Credit: npr.org) Twenty-five-year-old Takako’s world caves in around her, when over dinner on an otherwise uneventful evening, her boyfriend, Hideaki, casually announces that he would be leaving her for a newfound love interest. This apathetic proclamation leaves Takako in a catatonic state. Forsaking, first her job and then her appetite, she falls into a … Continue reading Days at the Morisaki Bookshop – Satoshi Yagisawa
the empusium – olga tokarczuk
In 1913, a young, but pale and unhealthy Mieczyslaw Wojnicz arrives at a health resort in the quaint and brooding Silesian Mountain village of Görbersdorf (currently known as Sokołowsko in Poland). Suffering from tuberculosis, Wojnicz hopes to be treated and cured in a massive sanatorium abutting the Guesthouse for Gentlemen, where the young lad checks … Continue reading the empusium – olga tokarczuk