The Ghosts of Rome, Joseph O’Connor ( hardback Jan 2025)
£20.00
February 1944. Six months since Nazi forces occupied Rome. Inside the beleaguered city, the Contessa Giovanna Landini is a member of the band of Escape Line activists known as ‘The Choir’.
Their mission is to smuggle refugees to safety and help Allied soldiers, all under the nose of Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann. During a ferocious morning air raid a mysterious parachutist lands in Rome and disappears into the backstreets. Is he an ally or an imposter? His fate will come to put the whole Escape Line at risk.
Meanwhile, Hauptmann’s attention has landed on the Contessa. As his fascination grows, she is pulled into a dangerous game with him – one where the consequences could be lethal. 'As thrilling, beautiful and sensational a novel as you'll read this year or any year' Donal Ryan,, Sunday Times
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Night Swimming : How to swim through the darkness by Al Mennie ( paperback August 2025)
£14.99
Al grew up in Castlerock in Northern Ireland after moving there as a child. He became a fearless surfer and swimmer, with an emotional connection to the sea which he shares here in this hugely informative and original book.
Discover the unmatched beauty of wild swimming by night. Combining motivational writing with evocative storytelling, international big wave surfer and night swimmer Al Mennie gives readers the tools to discover their own methods of navigating through darkness to find clarity and focus. Weaving together swim stories with the practicalities of how and when he swims at night, along with the benefits that connecting with nature has on the mind, this book is perfect for wild swimmers who want to experience their favourite waterhole after sundown. Discover what drew Al into the waters of the North Atlantic, how he found community after initially seeking isolation, his pre-swim rituals, and everything he has learnt along the way, including how he "found his moon" – something that shines brightly in his life.
The book will feature:Tides, currents, weather and seasonsHow the senses adaptNavigating by landscape, moon and starsPreparation, what to wear, pre-swim rituals Route planning, back-up plans and support teamsThe importance of community With illustrations of landscapes, moon phases, constellations and tidal patterns, and templates for planning routes and logging swims, this book will help readers find a new perspective on life, opening their mind to a deeper connection with themselves and with their local environment.
Hotel Lux : An Intimate History of Communism's Forgotten Radicals, by Maurice J Casey
£12.99
Shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards 2024: History Book of the Year
'Hotel Lux brings to life not only its protagonists but an entire world, and offering a new glimpse of a vanished past' Sally Rooney'
Hotel Lux follows Irish radical May O'Callaghan and her friends, three revolutionary families brought together by their vision for a communist future and their time spent in the Comintern's Moscow living quarters, the Hotel Lux. Historian Maurice Casey reveals the connections and disconnections of a group of forgotten communist activists whose lives collided in 1920s Moscow: a brilliant Irish translator, a maverick author, the rebel daughters of an East London Jewish family, and a family of determined German anti-fascists. The dramatic and interlocking histories of the O'Flahertys, Cohens and Leonhards offer an intimate insight into the legacies of the Russian Revolution from its earliest idealism through to the brutal Stalinist purges and beyond.
Hotel Lux uncovers a world of forgotten radicals who saw their hopes and dreams crash against reality yet retained their faith in a beautiful future for all. Culminating in a queer love story that saw the daughters of the Cohens and Leonhards create an enduring partnership even as their parents' political visions crumbled, this is a multi-generational rebel odyssey and a history of international communism, one which looks as much to the future as it does to the past.
Short Stories in Irish, Olly Richards ( paperback 2022)
£10.99
An unmissable collection of eight unconventional and captivating short stories for young and adult learners of Irish.
A Mind for Numbers Short Stories in Irish for Beginners has been written especially for students from high-beginner to low-intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, a feeling of progress and most importantly - enjoyment! Mapped to A1-B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages, these eight captivating stories are designed to give you a sense of achievement and a feeling of progress when reading.
The book is written in standard Irish. The audio recording of this standard Irish text is by a native Irish speaker from Connemara. What does this book give you?- Eight stories in a variety of exciting genres, from science fiction and crime to history and thriller - making reading fun, while you learn a wide range of new vocabulary- Controlled language at your level to help you progress confidently- Realistic spoken dialogues to help you learn conversational expressions and improve your speaking ability- Accessible grammar so you learn new structures naturally, in a stress-free way- Pleasure! Research shows that if you're enjoying reading in a foreign language, you won't experience the usual feelings of frustration - 'It's too hard!' 'I don't understand!'Carefully curated to make learning a new language easy, these stories include key features that will support and consolidate your progress, including: - A glossary for bolded words in each chapter- Full plot summary- A bilingual word list- Comprehension questions after each chapter.
THIRST TRAP, Grainne O' Hare ( hardback June 2025)
£16.99
Sometimes friends hold you together. Sometimes they’re why you’re falling apart. Maggie, Harley and Róise are friends on the brink: of triumph, catastrophe, or maybe just finally growing up.
Their crumbling Belfast houseshare has been witness to their roaring twenties, filled with questionable one-night stands and ruthless hangovers. But now fault-lines are beginning to show. The three girls are still grieving the tragic death of their friend, Lydia, whose room remains untouched.
Their last big fight hangs heavy over their heads, unspoken since the accident. And now they are all beginning to unravel. Thirst Trap by Gráinne O'Hare is a blazing, bittersweet, bitingly funny, and painfully relatable story about the friendships that endure through the very best and the very worst of times.
'Compulsively readable and brilliant on friendship and grief. I raced through it' - Daily Mail'Like the literary love child of Miranda July and Carrie Fisher, transposed in Belfast - hilarious, smart and chaotic in the best way' - Louise Nealon, author of SnowflakeReaders are raving about Thirst Trap:'Made me laugh and cry in equal measure''Laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving . .
