ireland | Bossy Bookworm

Review of The Coast Road by Alan Murrin

Murrin's fascinating debut novel introduces a small town filled with complicated relationships and allows resentments, suspicions, petty grudges, and betrayals to swirl into powerful, dark forces that drive apart various characters and destroy lives. "In my day the worst thing you could imagine was being unmarried--you just went with the first fellow who asked you.” It's 1994 in a small town in County Donegal, Ireland. Izzy is a housewife increasingly impatient with her husba

21 hours ago

Review of The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon

I was completely hooked on the imagined details of the life of Irish folk heroine and female pirate Grace O'Malley. I ultimately loved the novel's unusual structure, which tracked back and forth in time and revealed more about the strong female protagonist at each turn. I fell hard for this slam dunk of a premise: A novel about a female pirate based on the life of Grace O’Malley, an Irish folk heroine who was legendarily willing to risk everything for her people. Yes, yes, an

Oct 15

Review of Field Notes from an Extinction by Eoghan Walls

Walls uses a journal structure to draw the reader into a singular story I can't stop thinking about. In Field Notes from an Extinction, we witness the innermost thoughts of a grumbly hermit ornithologist who is thrust into a parenting role, then must face a pirate queen out for revenge on British colonial rulers amid the Irish Potato Famine. Eoghan Wells's Field Notes from an Extinction is a novel told in journal form from the perspective of a stodgy, single-minded 19th-centu

Sep 8

Review of Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise

Count me in for Irish-set novels--and for suspenseful, mysterious-past stories that hint at darkness, dangerous secrets, and the destructive power of the truth. But Hurtubise builds the true heart of this story around the development of its characters and relationships. This is a fast, intriguing read that I loved. When she was old enough, Sarah ran from an emotionally cold childhood in Michigan and mysterious circumstances to the rugged coast of Donegal, Ireland, where she n

Mar 25

Review of This Is Happiness by Niall Williams

This is gorgeous Niall Williams literary fiction, centering around an Irish country village, a young man searching for his path, and his unofficial mentor, zigzagging his way through life, embracing adventure, and bridging the gap between the old ways and modernity. Quiet connections and reflections make the story, with understated poignancy, humor, and heartbreaking moments that bring the book's world to life. We’re all, all the time, striving, and though that means there’s

Jan 20