Local Writers
We are lucky to have such energy and talent in our pool of local writers. Louise Kennedy is making a huge international impact with her short stories and then best selling novel Trespasses, but there are many others too! Anna Burns has won NI its first Booker Prize, for Milkman.
Pauline Burgess, Sheena Wilkinson and Kelly McCaughrain are inspiring our young writers with their teen/YA fiction, whilst Jan Carson, Michelle Gallen, Susannah Dickey, Rosemary Jenkins, Jamie Guiney, Olivia Rana and Bernie McGill are producing compelling fiction, to name but a few. Come in and browse or email for recommendations.
Thriller lovers are well catered for by Claire Allan, Sharon Dempsey and Steve Cavanagh, plus many others writing in the south of Ireland.
We also try to support debut writers and those just starting out on their publishing journey, by stocking their books in store - look out for Jim Simpson, Rosemary Mairs and others in store. Please email to ask for new writing recommendations.
And of course, the wonderful children and picture book writers, such as the by now legendary Oliver Jeffers ( yes, he's from Northern Ireland!), Barry Falls, Chris Haughton, Paddy Donnelly, Martin Waddell and other new and emerging authors and illustrators.
Dara McNulty and Kerri Ni Dochartaigh are bringing new insights to nature writing for young and old.
And politics ... always a fresh take, always someone with brains to consider how best to address this troubled corner of the world. Look to Glenn Paterson, Malachi O'Doherty and Susan McKay for insight and wisdom.
Milkman, by Anna Burns ( paperback 2019)
$13.00
Longlisted for the 2018 Booker Prize.
Anna Burns is originally from Belfast but is now based in England.
Milkman is “ a story of hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is the story of inaction with enormous consequences “
Powerful, stream of consciousness prose that feels exhausting but gets under your skin as an astute account of Northern Ireland’s social landscape, and ultimately delivers humour, and insight -it's quite brilliant.
Flying Tips for Flightless Birds, by Kelly McCaughrain (paperback)
$11.00
Twins Finch and Birdie Franconi are stars of the flying trapeze. But when Birdie suffers a terrifying accident, Finch must team up with the geeky new kid, Hector Hazzard, to form an all-boys double act and save the family circus school
Recently shortlisted for the Great Reads Award, this debut YA novel is funny, warm hearted and encouraging for anyone who feels they just don’t fit ‘the mould’.
The Unknowns, by Shirley-Anne McMillan ( paperback 2017)
$11.00
A teenage story of friendship, and boundaries, and preconceptions. Likeable main characters of Tilly and Brew, it’s edgy but realistic. My 15yo enjoyed this a lot.
Shirley Anne is from Lisburn and this is her second novel.
Tilly is perched at the top of Belfast's largest crane. She likes to climb up high at night in order to feel free from a city which, despite the best PR, is still full of trouble and conflict. Eventually, she comes back down to discover her bike is missing and in its place is a boy named Brew.
Wearing eyeliner and high-heeled boots, he offers her a drink from his flask of coffee before disappearing into the night. The next morning, Tilly's bike is returned, but tucked into the spoke of the wheel is a card with Brew's number on it. As Tilly learns to trust Brew, he leads her into a world she never knew existed - a world of parties in abandoned houses, completing missions that involve break-ins, and risking everything just to help strangers in need; the world of The Unknowns.
What Tilly doesn't anticipate is that they will also make her question everything she was brought up to believe in, and force her to make a choice that will stay with her for the rest of her life. The Unknowns is a story about hope in a city where increasing numbers of young people are struggling to get by, a place where there is no trust in the political system, and where some people still dare to dream.
Thirteen, Steve Cavanagh ( paperback 2018)
$13.00
This is the fourth book from Belfast based writer Steve Cavanagh, and it has pushed him up to the forefront of best contemporary crime writers across the globe. His own career as a barrister means that we get an insightful twisty and satisfying page turner. You’ll love it.
To your knowledge, is there anything that would preclude you from serving on this jury? 'Murder wasn't the hard part. It was just the start of the game. Joshua Kane has been preparing for this moment his whole life.
He's done it before. But this is the big one. This is the murder trial of the century.
And Kane has killed to get the best seat in the house. But there's someone on his tail. Someone who suspects that the killer isn't the man on trial.
Kane knows time is running out - he just needs to get to the conviction without being discovered.
The Watch House, by Bernie McGill (paperback)
$13.00
THE WATCH HOUSE by Bernie McGill is the story of the modern world arriving on Rathlin, a remote Irish island, at the very end of the nineteenth century, with dramatic consequences for a young woman named Nuala. As the twentieth century dawns on the island of Rathlin, a place ravaged by storms and haunted by past tragedies, Nuala Byrne is faced with a difficult decision. Abandoned by her family for the new world, she receives a proposal from the island's aging tailor.
For the price of a roof over her head, she accepts. Meanwhile the island is alive with gossip about the strangers who have arrived from the mainland, armed with mysterious equipment which can reportedly steal a person's words and transmit them through thin air. When Nuala is sent to cook for these men - engineers, who have been sent to Rathlin by Marconi to conduct experiments in the use of wireless telegraphy - she encounters an Italian named Gabriel, who offers her the chance to equip herself with new skills and knowledge.
As her friendship with Gabriel opens up horizons beyond the rocky and treacherous cliffs of her island home, Nuala begins to realise that her deal with the tailor was a bargain she should never have struck.
One of our bestselling novels. Vividly imagined and with a page turning suspense. A great read - Linda
Milkman, by Anna Burns (paperback, 2018)
$13.00
The Booker prize winning book of 2018, now available as paperback.
In an unnamed city, where to be interesting is dangerous, an eighteen-year-old woman has attracted the unwanted and unavoidable attention of a powerful and frightening older man, 'Milkman'. In this community, where suggestions quickly become fact, where gossip and hearsay can lead to terrible consequences, what can she do to stop a rumour once it has started? Milkman is persistent, the word is spreading, and she is no longer in control . .
. Winner of the International Dublin Literary Award 2020 and the Man Booker Prize 2018Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Women's Prize for Fiction, and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction
Travelling in a Strange Land, David Park ( paperback)
$13.00
AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
The world is shrouded in snow. With transport ground to a halt, Tom must venture out into a transformed and treacherous landscape to collect his son, sick and stranded in student lodgings. But on this solitary drive from Belfast to Sunderland, Tom will be drawn into another journey, one without map or guide, and is forced to chart pathways of family history haunted by memory and clouded in regret.
Travelling in a Strange Land is a work of exquisite loss and transformative grace. It is a novel about fathers and sons, grief, memory, family and love. From local author David Park.
Being Various, New irish Short Stories edited by Lucy Caldwell (new ed paperback Oct 2020)
$13.00
Anthology of new writing from Ireland
Featuring brand new short stories from Kevin Barry, Eimear McBride, Belinda McKeon, Lisa McInerney, Danielle McLaughlin, Stuart Neville, Sally Rooney, Kit de Waal and many more. Ireland is going through a golden age of writing: that has never been more apparent.
Following her own acclaimed short-story collection, Multitudes, Lucy Caldwell guest-edits the sixth volume of Faber's long-running series of all new Irish short stories, continuing the work of the late David Marcus and subsequent guest editors, Joseph O'Connor, Kevin Barry and Deirdre Madden.
This is the new paperback edition.
The Fire Starters, Jan Carson (Paperback, March 2020)
$13.00
**WINNER of the EU Prize for Literature**'One of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation' SUNDAY TIMES'
At once grittily real, wildly magical and insanely alluring - a siren-song of a novel (Donal Ryan)
Dr Jonathan Murray fears his new-born daughter is not as harmless as she seems. Sammy Agnew is wrestling with his dark past, and fears the violence in his blood lurks in his son, too.
The city is in flames and the authorities are losing control. As matters fall into frenzy, and as the lines between fantasy and truth, right and wrong, begin to blur, who will these two fathers choose to protect?Dark, propulsive and thrillingly original, this tale of fierce familial love and sacrifice fizzes with magic and wonder.
Jan Carson's distinctive voice brings Belfast alive in this original novel, I thoroughly enjoyed it. - Linda
Raff is Lost, by Jenny Scullion ( paperback)
$11.00
Losing a special toy is a crisis in most households. This lovely story takes us though the search to find Raff again ( and how to remember where he might be?!)
Suitable for 2- 5 ish and with super illustrations and rhyming text. A great bedtime story.
Local author too!
Fairies Don’t Exist, by Michael O’Neill & Stephen Pierce
$10.00
This is a funny, delightful story about a long suffering Dad trying to sort his daughter out and get her to sleep ( so he can have some peace).
Super illustrations, and enough narrative to entertain the 3 - 5 year olds.
A great book. Locally produced!
Big Girl Small Town, by Michelle Gallen ( paperback from 18, Feb 2021)
$13.00
Already shortlisted for a Women Comedy writing award, this has been described as Derry Girls meets Milkman. The unique blend of comedy and tragedy, with Michelle Gallen's 'Majella', is outrageous and honest.
Other people find Majella odd. She keeps herself to herself, she doesn't like gossip and she isn't interested in knowing her neighbours' business. But suddenly everyone in the small town in Northern Ireland where she grew up wants to know all about hers.
Since her da disappeared during the Troubles, Majella has tried to live a quiet life with her alcoholic mother. She works in the local chip shop (Monday-Saturday, Sunday off), wears the same clothes every day (overalls, too small), has the same dinner each night (fish and chips, nuked in the microwave) and binge watches Dallas (the best show ever aired on TV) from the safety of her single bed. She has no friends and no boyfriend and Majella thinks things are better that way.
But Majella's safe and predictable existence is shattered when her grandmother dies and as much as she wants things to go back to normal, Majella comes to realise that maybe there is more to life. And it might just be that from tragedy comes Majella's one chance at escape. 'It's a smasher' Kathy Burke
Don’t worry Little Crab, by Chris Haughton (paperback 2020)
$11.00
From the creator of A Bit Lost, Oh No, George!, Shh! We Have a Plan and Goodnight Everyone, comes a book about taking the time you need to overcome your fears. In the rockpool above the sea, live two crabs: Big Crab and Little Crab. Today, they're going for a dip in the sea."This is going to be so great!" says Little Crab. But then Little Crab catches a first glimpse of the water... Oh.
The waves! They're ENORMOUS. "Oh..." Will Little Crab be brave enough to go in?From the multi award-winning picture book maker of A Bit Lost, Oh No, George! and Shh! We Have a Plan comes a bold, beautiful picture book about working through anxiety and, with the support of a loved one, building up the courage to try something new.
Fifty Fifty, Steve Cavanagh ( paperback, Jul 2020)
$13.00
TWO SISTERS ON TRIAL FOR MURDER. THEY ACCUSE EACH OTHER. WHO DO YOU BELIEVE?
'911 what's your emergency?''My dad's dead.
My sister Sofia killed him. She's still in the house. Please send help.''My dad's dead.
My sister Alexandra killed him. She's still in the house. Please send help.'One of them is a liar and a killer.
But which one?
'Very clever, darkly funny, moving, fast-paced.' Jane Casey
Addictive, clever, pacy. Eddie Flynn is one of my heroes.' Jo Spain
Before My Actual Heart Breaks,Tish Delaney (paperback Oct 2021)
$13.00
_'If I could go back to being sixteen again, I'd do things differently.''Everyone over the age of forty feels like that, you total gom,' says my best friend Lizzie Magee. When she was young Mary Rattigan wanted to fly. She was going to take off like an angel from heaven and leave the muck and madness of troubled Northern Ireland behind.Nothing but the Land of Happy Ever After would do for her. But as a Catholic girl with a B.I.T.C.H. for a Mammy and a silent Daddy, things did not go as she and Lizzie Magee had planned.
Now, five children, twenty-five years, an end to the bombs and bullets, enough whiskey to sink a ship and endless wakes and sandwich teas later, Mary's alone. She's learned plenty of hard lessons and missed a hundred steps towards the life she'd always hoped for. Will she finally find the courage to ask for the love she deserves? Or is it too late?'
. . A touching tale of how one woman survives a tough beginning to eventually end up exactly where her heart belongs.' ANNE GRIFFIN, author of When All is Said
Flyntlock Bones 2 : The Eye of Mogrod, Derek Keilty (March 21, pb)
$10.00
A priceless golden chalice has been stolen from Fergus McSwaggers, fearsome chief of the squelchy Bog Islands ... and he wants it back! Can Flynn and the crew of the Black Hound solve their most dangerous case yet, battling deadly ice pirates, outsmarting squabbling clans, and facing the scariest beast of all the Seven Seas, the monstrous, cat-like Mogdrod?
For kids 5 - 9
Maybe, Chris Haughton ( paperback April 2021)
$11.00
rom Chris Haughton comes a funny, suspenseful and keenly observed cautionary tale about pushing boundaries and indulging your more mischievous, cheeky side (when nobody is looking). Three little monkeys, and their big monkey, are sat high up on their branch in the forest canopy. "Ok, monkeys! I'm off," says the big monkey."Now remember. Whatever you do, do NOT go down to the mango tree. There are tigers down there." Mmm ... mangos! think the little monkeys. They LOVE mangos. Hmm ...
maybe ... maybe they could just look at the mangos? That'd be ok, right?
A City Burning, Angela Graham ( paperback)
$13.00
A City Burning examines power of all types, exploring conflicts between political allegiances; between autonomy and intimacy; emotional display and concealment. The result is a deeply human book full of hauntingly memorable characters and narratives.
They have come to a moment of change, which puts to the proof their beliefs or their idea of themselves. Some of these moments occur in mundane circumstances, others amidst tragedy or drama urban violence, the Covid-19 pandemic, the tipping-point of a marriage. The characters find themselves confirmed or radicalised, and challenge or resist on one or other side of a political division or on the personal front of domestic tyranny. They include a watchful child, a gay priest, an estranged husband, an actress adrift and a young woman catching the tail-end of heartless urban mayhem.
The stories are set in Wales, Italy and Northern Ireland.
The Last Resort, Jan Carson ( hardback, April 2021)
$15.00
The season's just begun at Seacliff Caravan Park, but none of the residents are having a good time. Frankie is haunted by his daughter's death. Vidas, homeless and far from Lithuania, seeks sanctuary in an abandoned caravan.Anna struggles to shake off the ghost of her overbearing mother. Kathleen struggles to accept her daughter for who she is. Malcolm, a failed illusionist, makes one final attempt to reinvent himself.
Agatha Christie-obsessed Alma faces her toughest case yet as she tries to help them all find what they've lost. With trademark wit and playfulness, in this stunning linked short-story collection Jan Carson explores complex family dynamics, ageing, immigration, gender politics, the decline of the Church and the legacy of the Troubles. The Last Resort firmly places Carson as one of the most inventive and daring writers of her generation.
'One of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation' SUNDAY TIMES
Who Took Eden Mulligan, Sharon Dempsey (paperback August 2021)
$11.00
‘They’re dead. They’re all dead. It’s my fault. I killed them.’
Those are the words of Iona Gardener, who stands bloodied and staring as she confesses to the murder of four people in a run-down cottage outside of Belfast.
Outside the cottage, five old dolls are hanging from a tree. Inside the cottage, the words “WHO TOOK EDEN MULLIGAN?” are graffitied on the wall, connecting the murder scene with the famous cold case of Eden Mulligan, a mother-of-five who went missing during The Troubles.
But this case is different. Right from the start.
Because no one in the community is willing to tell the truth, and the only thing DI Danny Stowe and forensic psychologist Rose Lainey can be certain of is that Iona Gardener’s confession is false….
‘A dark, disturbing and gripping read perfect for fans of Jane Casey, Patricia Gibney and Brian McGilloway’ Claire Allan
Sweet Home, Wendy Erskine ( short story), paperback June 2020
$13.00
A gripping, wonderfully understated book that oozes humanity, emotion and humour.' Guardian
Warm, compassionate and funny, Sweet Home captures life in contemporary East Belfast, in all of its forms. Set in the author's native Belfast, the ten stories in Sweet Home lay bare the heartbreak and quiet tragedies that run under the surface of everyday lives. A lonely woman is fascinated by her niqab-wearing neighbours; a middle-aged teacher becomes obsessed with a young Gaelic football player; and an employer covers for his two employees caught having sex in a public toilet. Wendy Erskine offers perfectly formed, brilliantly observed portraits of people trying to carve out a life for themselves, all the while being buffeted by the loss, grief and regret that come their way.
Winner of the 2020 Butler Literary Award, Shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize 2019, Shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2019, Longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award 2019'A Book of the Year in the Guardian, The White Review, Observer, New Statesman, TLS.
Shannon Country, Paul Clements ( large paperback, Sept 2020)
$20.00
In August 1939 the Irish travel writer Richard Hayward set out on a road trip to explore the Shannon region just two weeks before the Second World War broke out. His evocative account of that trip, Where the River Shannon Flows, became a bestseller. The book, still sought after by lovers of the river, captures an Ireland of small shops and barefoot street urchins that has long since disappeared.
Eighty years on, inspired by his work, Paul Clements retraces Hayward's journey along the river, following - if not strictly in his footsteps - then within the spirit of his trip. From the Shannon Pot in Cavan, 344 kilometres south to the Shannon estuary, his meandering odyssey takes him by car, on foot, and by bike and boat, discovering how the riverscape has changed but is still powerful in symbolism. While he recreates Hayward's trip, Clements also paints a compelling portrait of twenty-first century Ireland, mingling travel and anecdote with an eye for the natural world.
He sails to remote islands, spends times in rural backwaters and secluded riverside villages where the pub is the hub, and attempts a quest for the Shannon connection behind the title of Flann O'Brien's novel At Swim-Two-Birds. On a quixotic journey by foot, boat, bike and car, Paul Clements produces an intimate portrait of the hidden countryside, its people, topography and wildlife, creating a collective memory map, looking at what has been lost and what has changed. Beyond the motorways and cities, you can still catch the pulse of an older, quieter Ireland of hay meadows and bogs, uninhabited islands and remote towpaths. This is the country of the River Shannon that runs through literature, art, cultural history and mythology with a riptide pull on our imagination.
* signed copies available *
Snowflake, Louise Nealon ( Paperback April 2022)
$12.00
Tender, laugh-out-loud funny, and deeply moving' Louise O'Neill, author of After the Silence
Eighteen-year-old Debbie White lives on a dairy farm with her mother, Maeve, and her uncle, Billy. Billy sleeps out in a caravan in the garden with a bottle of whiskey and the stars overhead for company. Maeve spends her days recording her dreams, which she believes to be prophecies.
This world is Debbie's normal, but she is about to step into life as a student at Trinity College in Dublin. As she navigates between sophisticated new friends and the family bubble, things begin to unravel. Maeve's eccentricity tilts into something darker, while Billy's drinking gets worse.
Debbie struggles to cope with the weirdest, most difficult parts of herself, her family and her small life. But the fierce love of the White family is never in doubt, and Debbie discovers that even the oddest of families are places of safety. A startling, honest, laugh and cry novel about growing up and leaving home, only to find that you've taken it with you, Snowflake is a novel for a generation, and for everyone who's taken those first, terrifying steps towards adulthood.
Look! It’s a Woman Writer! Edited By Eilis Ni Dhuibhne (paperback, April 2021)
$39.00
This is a scholarly and yet intensely readable book. It takes female writers who were largely born in the 1950's and asks each one to reflect on her experience of being published, read and taken seriously as a writer in Ireland. The vast majority of these women do so, against a backdrop of raising families, holding down 'proper' jobs and generally swimming against the tide of what is expected from them. I found it inspiring, and humbling. In the words of Mark Twain, many of us might say "I'm writing a novel" to which his sharp reply was "Neither am I". These pioneers demonstrated through sheer will and dedication , to actually follow through. Some are more personal, some more academic, but an essential read for anyone interested in gender studies, writing in Ireland and creative endeavour.
Tennis Lessons, Susannah Dickey ( paperback April 2021)
$13.00
For readers who want to laugh and cry: the brave, beautiful, sometimes brutal story of a young misfit and her rocky road to womanhood, stopping at each year along the way. 'I loved Tennis Lessons so much' ELIZABETH DAY
You're strange and wrong. You've known it from the beginning.
This is the voice that rings in your ears. Because you never say the right thing. You're a disappointment to everyone.
You're a far cry from beautiful - and your thoughts are ugly too. You seem bound to fail, bound to break. But you know what it is to laugh with your best friend, to feel the first tentative tingles of attraction, to take exquisite pleasure in the affront of your unruly body.
You just need to find your place. From dead pets and crashed cars to family traumas and misguided love affairs, Susannah Dickey's revitalizing debut novel plunges us into the private world of one young woman as she navigates her rocky way to adulthood. 'Brilliant .
. . stays in the mind long after reading' IRISH TIMES'A beautifully written and psychologically incisive bildungsroman...the arrival of a young writer to watch' OBSERVER
The Troubles With Us, Allie O’Neill (Paperback out June 2022)
$13.00
A hilarious memoir about growing up in Northern Ireland in the 90s towards the end of the Troubles and a brilliantly propelling narrative of the extraordinary background story of her mother. Her mother's vivid personality and witty colloquialisms dominate the book and help to give a social history of life in Belfast from the 1950s onwards. Growing up on the Falls Road in 1990s Belfast, Alix O'Neill has seen it all - burnt-out buses blocking the route to school, the police mistaking her father for a leading terrorist and a classmate playing hide and seek with her dad's prosthetic hand (blown off making a device for the IRA).Not that she or her friends are up to speed with the goings-on of the resistance. They're too preoccupied with the obsessions of every teenage girl - booze, boys and Boyzone - to worry about the violence on their doorstep. Besides, the odd coffee jar bomb is nothing compared to the drama about to explode in Alix's personal life.
Desperate to leave Northern Ireland and the trials of her mother's unorthodox family - a loving yet eccentric band of misfits - behind, she makes grand plans for the next stage. But it's through these relationships and their gradual unravelling that Alix begins to appreciate not only the troubled history of where she comes from, but the strength of its women. Warm, embarrassing and full of love and insight, The Troubles with Us is a hilarious and moving account of the madness and mundanities of life in Northern Ireland during the thirty-year conflict.
It's a story of mothers and daughters, the fallout from things left unsaid and the lengths a girl will go to for fake tan.
The Milkman’s Dilemma, Robin Shields (paperback Nov 2020)
$11.00
The Milkman's Dilemma is based mainly in Belfast and also in Liverpool, where Clodagh and her husband had 'escaped' to in order to discover a different life to Belfast. However, Clodagh finds herself back in the family home after a misunderstanding with her husband. The visit home brings about many happy memories and stories from the past, and from Clodagh's upbringing. Written with traditional Belfast colloquialisms and sayings, the story brings to life what living in Belfast, in a big family is like, along with the humour that goes with it. Clodagh's imagination, fuelled by the support of her family makes for some very interesting theories, which make the book even funnier. A laugh-out-loud, feel good story with an unexpected twist at the end.
Alyssa, JG Cully ( paperback, August 2021)
$16.00
An ‘urban fantasy’, also great for teens / YA
Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan ( Paperback Dec 2022)
$12.00
It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church.
The perfect novella, cannot recommend this highly enough! Linda
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize - WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE AND THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR
The Raptures, Jan Carson ( paperback from Jan 2023)
$13.00
When several children from the same village start succumbing to a mysterious illness, the quest to discover the cause has devastating and extraordinary consequences. It is late June in Ballylack. Hannah Adger anticipates eight long weeks' reprieve from school, but when her classmate Ross succumbs to a violent and mysterious illness, it marks the beginning of a summer like no other.As others fall ill, questions about what - or who - is responsible pitch the village into conflict and fearful disarray. Hannah is haunted by guilt as she remains healthy while her friends are struck down. Isolated and afraid, she prays for help.
Elsewhere in the village, tempers simmer, panic escalates and long-buried secrets threaten to emerge. Bursting with Carson's trademark wit, profound empathy and soaring imagination, The Raptures explores how tragedy can unite a small community - and tear it apart. At its heart is the extraordinary resilience of one young girl.
As the world crumbles around her, she must find the courage to be different in a place where conforming feels like the only option available. Darkly funny, highly inventive and deeply moving, The Raptures is an unmissable novel of 2022.
Thin Places, Kerri Ni Dochartaigh (paperback Jan 2022)
$13.00
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING - HIGHLY COMMENDED'
Remarkable' Robert Macfarlane'Beautiful' Amy Liptrot'Powerful, unflinching . . .
Part hymn to nature, part Troubles memoir' Guardian Kerri ni Dochartaigh was born in Derry at the very height of the Troubles. One parent was Catholic, the other Protestant. In the space of a year Kerri's family were forced out of two homes and when she was eleven a homemade petrol bomb was thrown through her bedroom window.
For families like hers, terror was in the very fabric of the city. In Thin Places, Kerri explores how nature kept her sane and helped her heal, and how we are again allowing our borders to become hard and terror to creep back in. Kerri asks us to reclaim and rejoice in our landscape, and to remember that the land we fight over is much more than lines on a map.
Harper, by Harriet Ennis ( series)
$8.00
A beautifully illustrated little set of books, telling the story of Harper who is a rescue dog. His family choose him, take him home, and enjoy his escapades and adventures. Locally written, illustrated and produced. Each title is £5.99 and can be sold separately, or in a 5- pack boxed set.
She And I, Hannah King (paperback 19 Jan 23)
$12.00
She and I : gripping psychological suspense from a fantastic new Northern Irish voice
Not only beautifully written but gripping and full of soul' SARAH PEARSE, author of THE SANATORIUM'
Best friends share everything. But murder is different. Isn't it? Keeley and Jude are closer than blood. They share everything: clothes, secrets, drinks - and blame. So when they wake up after a New Year's party to find Keeley's boyfriend stabbed to death beside them, they agree to share one more thing: the story they'll tell the police. But who is their story really meant to protect? As the murder investigation begins to send uncomfortable ripples through their community, the history of the girls' claustrophobic relationship comes under scrutiny, will the girls find there's such a thing as sharing too much?'
A taut and unrelenting mystery, expertly woven with the bruising drama of girlhood' ANNA BAILEY, author of TALL BONES
These Days, Lucy Caldwell ( PAPERBACK MARCH 2023) )
$12.00
The new novel from the Winner of the BBC National Short Story Award 2021.
Two sisters, four nights, one city. April, 1941. Belfast has escaped the worst of the war - so far.
Over the next two months, it's going to be destroyed from above, so that people will say, in horror, My God, Belfast is finished. Many won't make it through, and no one who does will remain unchanged. Following the lives of sisters Emma and Audrey - one engaged to be married, the other in a secret relationship with another woman - as they try to survive the horrors of the four nights of bombing which were the Belfast Blitz, These Days is a timeless and heart-breaking novel about living under duress, about family, and about how we try to stay true to ourselves.
LENNY, by Laura McVeigh ( large paperback March 2022)
$19.00
Such a lovely story. A young boy and his father, living in the oppressive and run down deep south, with a litany of disadvantages to overcome. But somehow the story is full of hope, and humanity, friendship and courage. I found myself hooked through every chapter.
I'd recommend it to 9+ children, and their parents!
If you enjoy RJ Palaccio, Katya Balen .. this is the same genre.
Truth Be Told, Sue Divin ( paperback April 2022)
$11.00
The gripping new YA novel from Sue Divin, the acclaimed and Carnegie shortlisted author of Guard Your Heart. She's writing about contemporary Derry and it's brilliant!
Northern Ireland. 2019. Tara has been raised by her mam and nan in Derry City. Faith lives in rural Armagh. Their lives on opposite sides of a political divide couldn't be more different.
Until they come face-to-face with each other and are shocked to discover they look almost identical. Are they connected?In searching for the truth about their own identities, the teenagers uncover more than they bargained for. But what if finding out who you truly are means undermining everything you've ever known?
Reporting The Troubles 2
$23.00
Reporting the Troubles 2 : More Journalists Tell Their Stories of the Northern Ireland Conflict
In this follow-up to their landmark first book, Deric Henderson and Ivan Little have gathered new stories from seventy journalists who have worked in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. These contributors write powerfully about the victims they have never forgotten, the events that have never left them, and the lasting impact of working through those terrible years. Reporting the Troubles 2, which includes contributions from a new generation of journalists, who came up in the years leading to the Good Friday Agreement, provides a compelling narrative of the last fifty years, and covers many of the key events in Northern Ireland's troubled history, from Bloody Sunday in 1972 to the inquest into the Ballymurphy Massacre in 2021.
Grounded in the passionate belief that good journalism and good journalists make a difference, Reporting the Troubles 2 is a profoundly moving act of remembrance and testimony. 'I am sometimes asked to identify the most important story that I dealt with while I was editor of the Irish Times ... I answer that the most important story was not published in a single day but over years.
And it was not put together by any one journalist but by a whole cohort of reporters, photographers, feature writers and editors ... For the most part they just got by-lines and the satisfaction of knowing that what they were doing was important, that the story had to be told, day by day, hour by hour. And that telling it could make a difference.
Childhood Unlimited, Virginia Mendez ( Paperback, April 2022)
$17.00
In 2013, Disney released its most egalitarian film to date - but 59% of all the lines in Frozen are spoken by male characters. - 57% of children's books published annually have central male characters; just 31% have central female characters. Raising your child beyond the limitations placed on them by gender is, let's face it, an uphill battle.
If you don't know where to start, or how to start, you will find inspiration, insight and plenty of practical strategies in Childhood Unlimited. From navigating the gendered constructs that dominate children's films, television and media generally, to choosing appropriate and stimulating toys beyond the binary divide, this accessible and relatable book will make the whole process much less daunting. Based on interviews with, and research by, some of the best thought-leaders from the fields of psychology, neuroscience and education, the insights in this book will not only open the eyes of any parent or caregiver, they will inspire you to help your child to look at the world in a critical, creative and empowered way.
Free from the restraints of the stereotypes that surround gender, your child has the opportunity to reach their true potential - and this is the book that you need to launch them on that journey.
** recently launched right here in Books Paper Scissors, Virginia is an adopted Northern Irish author and a Spanish native **
The Quiet Whispers Never Stop, Olivia Fitzsimons ( paperback March 2023)
$12.00
In 1982, Nuala Malin struggles to stay connected, to her husband, to motherhood, to the smallness of her life in the belly of a place that is built on hate and stagnation. Her daughter Sam and baby son PJ keep her tethered to this life she doesn't want. She finds unexpected refuge with a seventeen-year-old boy, but this relationship is only temporary, a sticking plaster on a festering wound.
It cannot last and when her chance to leave Northern Ireland comes, Nuala takes it. In 1994, Sam Malin plans escape. She longs for a life outside her dysfunctional family, far away from the North and all its troubles, free from her quiet brooding father Patsy, who never talks about her mother, Nuala; a woman Sam barely knew, who abandoned them twelve years ago.
She finds solace in music, drugs and her best friend Becca, but most of all in an illicit relationship with a jagged, magnetic older man.
Linda - I found this coming of age story powerful, toxic and very very readable - loved the imaginative voice and thoughts of Sam
Stuck in the Middle with Ewe, Holly Crawford ( paperback April 2022)
$13.00
Stuck in the Middle with Ewe: or how I lost my heart and found my flock in Northern Ireland', is a chaotic, funny and poignant tale, recounting how an English journalist fell in love with a Northern Irish farmer, his sheep and a new way of life. Holly Crawford has finally found the man of her dreams. This is good.Unfortunately he lives 500 miles away on the other side of the Irish Sea. This is bad. Never one to do things by halves, Holly decides there's only one thing for it: she will marry him (during a pandemic) and relocate to his homeland.
Having swapped deadlines for dairies and suits for Wellington boots, she's soon causing chaos as she encounters cantankerous cows, riotous rams and cute lambs while finding out just what it takes to be a farmer's wife. She has one husband, 200 sheep and not a clue.
