Normal People, by Sally Rooney ( pb 2019)
£9.99
The second novel from young Irish writer Sally Rooney and already with a Booker Longlist nomination to its credit. This is a thoughtful and intimate coming of age story of Connell and Marianne, the novel moves between menace and tenderness with a truly original voice.
Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in the west of Ireland, but the similarities end there. In school, Connell is popular and well-liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation - awkward but electrifying - something life-changing begins.
Normal People is a story of mutual fascination, friendship and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find they can't.
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A Ghost in the Throat, Doireann ni Ghiofra (paperback October 2021)
£9.99
In the present day, a young mother narrowly avoids tragedy. On encountering the poem, she becomes obsessed with its parallels with her own life, and sets out to track down the rest of the story. A devastating and timeless tale about one woman freeing her voice by reaching into the past and finding another's.
A Little Unsteadily into Light : New Dementia-Inspired Fiction ( 2 Sept 2022)
£14.99
To live with dementia is to develop extraordinary and various new ways of being – linguistically, cognitively and practically. The storyteller operates similarly, using words and ideas creatively to reveal a slightly different perspective of the world.
In this anthology of fourteen new short stories, commissioned by Jan Carson and Jane Lugea, some of the best contemporary writers from Ireland and the UK powerfully and poignantly explore the depths and breadth of the real dementia experience, traversing age, ethnicity, class and gender, sex and consent.
Each writer’s story is drawn from their own personal experience of dementia and told with outrageous and dark humour, empathy and startling insight. Here are heroes and villains, tricksters and saints, mothers, fathers, lovers, friends, characters whose past has overshadowed their present and characters who are making a huge impact on the world they currently find themselves in. They might have dementia, but dementia is only a small part of who they are. They will challenge, frustrate, inspire and humble you.
Above all, these brilliant pieces of short fiction disrupt the perceived notions of what dementia is and, in their diversity, honesty and authenticity begin to normalise an illness that affects so many and break down the stigma endured by those living with it every day.
A New Dream, Nigel Tilson and William Cherry ( paperback)
£17.00
The story of Northern Ireland’s UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 journey
This is the ultimate underdog story: the story of a team who were resigned to operating in the backwaters of women’s international football before an inspirational figure instilled belief and passion in them. Players who had pulled on the green jersey year upon year, campaign after campaign, never dreamt they could reach the heights of appearing at a major tournament. That was until Kenny Shiels came along and sparked a new dream. He was a coach who had been there and done that in several countries, winning plenty of trophies along the way. Shiels had successfully managed a Northern Ireland international boys’ team in the past but he was keen to bring his know-how to the senior international stage. The veteran manager immediately set about reinvigorating the experienced players in the squad which he inherited - and introducing younger players who could step up to a higher level. He found a blend that worked. And he moulded a togetherness which players often describe as “one big family’. Flanked by his son Dean, goalkeeping coach Dwayne Nelson and a strong backroom team, he instilled a hunger and drive that led to a maiden appearance at a major tournament. Through words and the brilliant pictures of William Cherry this book charts, in chronological order, Northern Ireland’s incredible journey to UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 - often against the odds - and the part the senior women’s team played in the record-breaking tournament in Englan
A Thread of Violence, Mark O’Connell ( paperback June 2024)
£16.99
From an award-winning author comes a tale of a notorious double-murder, for readers of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, or Emmanuel Carrere's The Adversary. In 1982 Malcolm Macarthur, the wealthy heir to a small estate, found himself suddenly without money. The solution, he decided, was to rob a bank.To do this, he would need a gun and a car. In the process of procuring them, he killed two people, and the circumstances of his eventual arrest in the apartment of Ireland's Attorney General nearly brought down the government. The case remains one of the most shocking in Ireland's history.
Mark O'Connell has long been haunted by the story of this brutal double murder. But in recent years this haunting has become mutual. When O'Connell sets out to unravel the mysteries still surrounding these horrific and inexplicable crimes, he tracks down Macarthur himself, now an elderly man living out his days in Dublin and reluctant to talk.
As the two men circle one another, O'Connell is pushed into a confrontation with his own narrative: what does it mean to write about a murderer?
