Eileen Battersby bewitches with a beguiling bildungsroman

It's a brave move for a critic to publish a novel ...

Eileen Battersby, literary correspondent of the Irish Times, has taken the brave step of publishing her own novel

FICTION; Teethmarks on My Tongue, By Eileen Battersby, Dalkey Archive Press, €19.50

It’s always brave to publish a novel; for a critic to do so is even braver. A critic who publishes a novel is offering up a hostage to fortune. All over the world, embittered novelists must be sharpening their knives in anticipation of the moment when James Wood, High Literary Priest of the New Yorker, lets slip his second try at ...