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Andrea Cleary

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The Seawomen: Powerful novel depicts the persistence of women under patriarchal and religious rule

Chloe Timms’s compelling debut about an island where women suffer under an oppressive regime is essential reading for dystopian fiction fans

His Name is George Floyd – The hard life and sad death of one man who became a civil rights icon

Murdered in Minneapolis in May 2020 by a police officer, George Floyd became an emblem of a community’s refusal to accept state oppression. A new book looks at the man behind the symbolism

Erica Cody: ‘An album is a defining point so I want it to be something really special'

The Dublin singer/songwriter has always done things her own way, so much so that she won’t release her debut until she is satisfied

People Person: A breezy second novel filled with wit, charm and darkness

Queenie author Candice Carty-Williams scores again with a sharp, sparkling tale of half-sibling solidarity

Spies in Canaan: A short but spellbinding story of intrigue and memory

Set largely in the wake of the Vietnam War, David Park’s beautiful new novel is a departure from the vast majority of his previous work

Tell Me An Ending: An absorbing dystopian debut explores loss and trauma through memory

With echoes of the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Jo Harkin’s new novel poses questions about the sinister prospect of state mind control

The Belladonna Maze – An eerie page-turner that blurs past and present

RTÉ arts correspondent Sinéad Crowley’s new novel hits every mark for lovers of ghost tales

Andrea Cleary: Dublin is a city for sale to the highest bidder

A cultural void has developed on Dublin’s increasingly hotel-strewn streets, to the point where the tourists who come here will soon have very little to see

Take My Hand is a timely tale of how misogyny and racism affect women’s healthcare

A story of enforced female sterilisation from the American South half a century ago is a troubling reminder of the health issues still facing women today

Book review: Trouble – Marise Gaughan confronts her past in a brutally honest account of her difficult relationship with her father, addiction issues and her eventual road to recovery

Comedian brings her storytelling skills to a remarkable and relatable memoir

Book review: A musician celebrates difference and resistance in well-crafted science fiction stories

The collection tackles afrofuturism, the manipulation of memory and mind control, and explores further the themes introduced in Janelle Monae’s 2018 album, Dirty Computer

Holiday reads: the best books for you to escape with this summer

In search of a great summer read? We’ve picked out some of our favourite books for you, taking in fiction and non-fiction. Most of the titles have been published within the past year and all of them are available from your local bookshop or online. Fiction reviews are by Andrea Cleary, John Walshe, Nadine O’Regan and Niamh Donnelly, while our non-fiction recommendations have been compiled by Andrew Lynch. Happy reading.

Book Review: Seven Steeples – Quiet, magical novel shows we are never truly alone in nature

Sara Baume’s chronicle of a couple living in not-so-splendid isolation in rural Ireland is rendered in hypnotising, inviting and reflective prose

Andrea Cleary: Our unsustainable choices are going out of fashion like there’s no tomorrow

Fast-fashion retailers try to disguise environmental damage with organic cotton and buy-back schemes, but we can each make a real difference by turning to second-hand and repurposed clothes

Book review: Lessons in Chemistry cooks up a 1960s world where women are ready to challenge the equilibrium

Bonnie Garmus tackles the issues that led to the sexual revolution in a nuanced and engaging way, but it is the characters that make this debut novel utterly compelling

Kathryn Thomas interview: ‘It’s important to ‘work, rest and play’, but resting is just as important as the other two

The TV presenter has lost none of the energy that propelled her to TV fame in her early 20s

Book review: Bitch - A new study shows that sexist science overshadowed our understanding of the animal kingdom

Lucy Cooke’s guide to sex and evolution disproves the theory that the male of the species is always the dominant sex

Book review: Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? – Promising new British novel is undermined by under-developed plot

Lizzie Damilola Blackburn’s new novel has a sympathetic and likeable central character, but is frustratingly stilted in other regards

Andrea Cleary: Kim Kardashian’s clarion call for women to work harder is more than a bit rich

The mega-wealthy reality TV superstar is unimpressed with the productivity of ordinary women, but they’re starting from a very different place than she did

Book review: The Last Good Funeral of the Year - O’Loughlin digs deep to produce an often visceral memoir

The Irish journalist’s beautiful and curious autobiography is centred upon a strong narrative of grief and what follows it