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€22.00
This is the first book of essays by a major new Irish non-fiction writer from the West of Ireland, comparable to the celebrated Kilkenny essayist Hubert Butler first published by The Lilliput Press and subsequently widely acclaimed. McCarthy’s writing is no less distinguished than Butler’s.
Gerard McCarthy writes of the extraordinarily subtle mix of his essays: “Perhaps the Philosophers who had the most enduring influence on me were the contrary figures of Nietzsche and Marcus Aurelius. The reading of each was an antidote to the other, but I was drawn to both by an instinctive affinity. They were augmented subsequently by the gargantuan figure of Michel de Montaigne. My interest has continued to be in the region where Philosophy merges into Literature, with a preference for a language of metaphor rather than of abstract reasoning.”
McCarthy continues: “These eight essays were written over the course of more than a decade. The fact that they have all been published in the one place, by the good offices of Irish Pages, has allowed me see the continuity between them, and to hope that they might be seen by the reader to form a unity.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gerard McCarthy (1949-2022) was born and reared in Dublin, and spent most of his adult life in Sligo, where he worked as social worker. He studied Philosophy at University College Dublin, with an early interest in Nietzsche and Marcus Aurelius, augmented subsequently by Michel de Montaigne. His first published essays – now collected here – have all appeared in issues of Irish Pages: A Journal of Contemporary Writing. He divided his time between his Sligo residence, an old schoolhouse on Collanmore Island in Clew Bay, and various travels to the Mediterranean and other peripheries of Europe. Old Istanbul & Other Essays was his first book.
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€25.00
Brendan Behan wrote over one hundred articles for Irish newspapers between 1951 and 1956 as he rose to international fame, with most of them written in a weekly column in the Irish Press. The articles reveal a serious writer capable of great comic set pieces and amusing yarns as well as thoughtful reflections on cultural and historical issues. They reflect his passion for working-class Dublin life and the history and folklore of the city, as well as his travels in Ireland and Europe.
This edition gathers all the articles and essays that Behan published in newspapers from 1951 to his death in 1964. Selections of Behan’s articles have been published since his death (Hold Your Hour and Have Another, 1965; After the Wake, 1981; The Dubbalin Man, 1997). However, there has been no complete edition of Behan’s prose, and no edition has provided a detailed biographical and literary introduction, explanatory notes and suggestions for further reading.
This volume is intended for publication during the centenary celebrations of Behan’s birth in 2023, with his birthday being 9 February.
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€13.50
In Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris once again captures what is most unexpected, hilarious, and poignant about recent upheavals, personal and public, and expresses in precise language both the misanthropy and desire for connection that drive us all. If we must live in interesting times, there is no one better to chronicle them than the incomparable David Sedaris.
‘Unquestionably the king of comic writing’ HADLEY FREEMAN, Guardian
‘Although Sedaris is famous for being funny, he does pain heartbreakingly well’ MELISSA KATSOULIS, The Times
‘His wickedly hilarious riffs are pyrotechnics in words’ PETER CONRAD, Observer
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€17.50
Jamie O’Neill loves the colour red. He also loves tall trees, patterns, rain that comes with wind, the curvature of many objects, books with dust jackets, cats, rivers and Edgar Allan Poe. At age 13 there are two things he especially wants in life: to build a Perpetual Motion Machine, and to connect with his mother Noelle, who died when he was born.
In his mind these things are intimately linked. And at his new school, where all else is disorientating and overwhelming, he finds two people who might just be able to help him.
How to Build a Boat is the story of how one boy and his mission transforms the lives of his teachers, Tess and Tadhg, and brings together a community. Written with tenderness and verve, it’s about love, family and connection, the power of imagination, and how our greatest adventures never happen alone.
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€15.00
A5 hard back notebook featuring Sligo town. Elastic band closure and matching satin ribbon book marker compliment the design by Simone Walsh’s original painting. The inner covers are printed with an an acorn design and the thought evoking quote: “Mighty Oaks from Little Acorns Grow!
14cm x 21cm. 160 eco friendly lined acid free pages. Recyclable.
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€16.95
Luminous and devastating, a portrait of modern masculinity as shaped by class, by trauma, and by silence, but also by the courage to love and to surviveSean’s brother Anthony is a hard man. When they were kids their ma did her best to keep him out of trouble but you can’t say anything to Anto. Sean was supposed to be different.
He was supposed to leave and never come back. But Sean does come back. Arriving home after university, he finds Anthony’s drinking is worse than ever.
Meanwhile the jobs in Belfast have vanished, Sean’s degree isn’t worth the paper it’s written on and no one will give him the time of day. One night he loses control and assaults a stranger at a party, and everything is tipped into chaos. Close to Home witnesses the aftermath of that night, as Sean attempts to make sense of who he has become, and to reckon with the relationships that have shaped him, for better and worse.
Drawing from his own experiences, Michael Magee examines the forces which keep young working class men in harm’s way, in a debut novel which shines with intelligence and humanity on every page. Close to Home is an extraordinary work of fiction about deciding what kind of a man you want to be and finding your place in the scarred city you call home.
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€13.50
The Western world has turned its back on refugees, fuelling one of the most devastating human rights disasters in history.
In August 2018, Sally Hayden received a Facebook message. ‘Hi sister Sally, we need your help,’ it read. ‘We are under bad condition in Libya prison. If you have time, I will tell you all the story.’ More messages followed from more refugees. They told stories of enslavement and trafficking, torture and murder, tuberculosis and sexual abuse.
And they revealed something else: that they were all incarcerated as a direct result of European policy. From there began a staggering investigation into the migrant crisis across North Africa. This book follows the shocking experiences of refugees seeking sanctuary, but it also surveys the bigger picture: the negligence of NGOs and corruption within the United Nations.
The economics of the twenty-first-century slave trade and the EU’s bankrolling of Libyan militias. The trials of people smugglers, the frustrations of aid workers, the loopholes refugees seek out and the role of social media in crowdfunding ransoms. Who was accountable for the abuse? Where were the people finding solutions? Why wasn’t it being widely reported? At its heart, this is a book about people who have made unimaginable choices, risking everything to survive in a system that wants them to be silent and disappear.
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€20.00
Hope is needed in our daily lives now more than ever. Wars and the pandemic, along with the ongoing climate crisis, are affecting the lives of many people all over the world. In this difficult time, hope is the unifying force to carry us through the despair. To inspire others to find hope in their lives, Sr Stan reached out to a number of individuals to discover where they find hope.
As with her previous best seller Finding Peace (2021), Sr Stan posed the question “Where and how do you find hope in your daily life?”. Despite being a very personal question, public figures and private citizens responded in droves and the result is an authentic and beautiful book sure to inspire readers.
With contributions from:
Charlie Bird, Mary Kenny, Cathy Kelly, Colum McCann, Tanaiste Micheál Martin, Orla Guerin, Mike Ryan, Éanna Ní Lamhna, Myles Dungan, Archbishop Eamon Martin, Collette O’Regan, Bryan Dobson, Mary Lou McDonald, Adi Roche, Dee Forbes….. and many more
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€15.95
Deena Garvey disappeared in 2004. She left behind a daughter and a sister. Deena’s daughter grows up in the country.
She learns how to hunt, when to seed the garden, how to avoid making her father angry. Never to ask about her absent mother. Deena’s sister stays stuck in the city, getting desperate.
She knows the man responsible for her sister’s disappearance, but she can’t prove it. Not yet. Over fourteen years, four hundred miles apart, these two women slowly begin to unearth the secrets and lies at the heart of their family, and the history of power and control that has shaped them both in such different ways.
But can they reach each other in time? And will the truth finally answer the question of their lives: What really happened to Deena Garvey?
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€15.95
Recently retired policeman Tom Kettle is settling into the quiet of his new home, a lean-to annexed to a Victorian castle overlooking the Irish Sea. For months he has barely seen a soul, catching only glimpses of his eccentric landlord and a nervous young mother who has moved in next door.
Occasionally, fond memories return, of his family, his beloved wife June and their two children. But when two former colleagues turn up at his door with questions about a decades-old case, one which Tom never quite came to terms with, he finds himself pulled into the darkest currents of his past. A beautiful, haunting novel, in which nothing is quite as it seems, Old God’s Time is about what we live through, what we live with, and what may survive of us.
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€9.95
Mara and her dad have lived in their van for as long as she can remember. Whatever her father does to scrape a living has kept them constantly moving and Mara has never questioned it. That is until she uncovers a collection of notes addressed to ‘the Tider’, an individual responsible for harvesting lost time from people whose lives were cut short.
But before Mara can question her father he is taken by a dangerous group who want to use his power for evil. With the very fabric of time and space at stake, it’s down to Mara and her new friend Jan to find him before it’s too late…
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€12.50
New York is slipping from Cleo’s grasp.
Sure, she’s at a different party every other night, but she barely knows anyone. Her student visa is running out, and she doesn’t even have money for cigarettes. But then she meets Frank.
Twenty years older, Frank’s life is full of all the success and excess that Cleo’s lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a green card. She offers him a life imbued with beauty and art-and, hopefully, a reason to cut back on his drinking.
He is everything she needs right now. Cleo and Frank run head-first into a romance that neither of them can quite keep up with. It reshapes their lives and the lives of those around them, whether that’s Cleo’s best friend struggling to embrace his gender identity in the wake of her marriage, or Frank’s financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates after being cut off.
Ultimately, this chance meeting between two strangers outside of a New Year’s Eve party changes everything, for better or worse. Cleopatra and Frankenstein is an astounding and painfully relatable debut novel about the spontaneous decisions that shape our entire lives and those imperfect relationships born of unexpectedly perfect evenings.
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€20.00
Charlie Mackesy’s beloved The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse has been adapted into an animated short film, coming to BBC One and iPlayer this Christmas. This beautifully made hardback celebrates the work of over 100 animators across two years of production – with Charlie’s distinctive illustrations brought to life in full colour with hand-drawn traditional animation and accompanying hand-written script.
“I made a film with some friends about a boy, a mole, a fox and a horse – their journey together and the boy’s search for home. I hope this book gives you courage and makes you feel loved.” Love Charlie x
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€22.95
What makes us human? Ireland’s favorite scientist is here to tell you! What do you have in common with the 7.75 billion other people on the planet? This is the question that Professor Luke O’Neill attempts to answer in this exciting new book for young readers, adapted from his bestselling book for adults, Humanology: A Scientist’s Guide to our Amazing Existence.
Starting with the origin of life and how we as a species evolved on the plains of Africa some 200,000 years ago, Professor Luke explores what makes us interesting as a species, why we sleep, laugh and enjoy music, and our efforts to stop disease. He also ponders whether we will create superhumans, how and why we age, if we can escape death and whether our eventual extinction is inevitable. With Luke’s trademark infectious enthusiasm – and plenty of laughs along the way – What Makes Us Human is the perfect book for curious minds.
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€12.95
Lissadell House, Sligo, 1915. In the Big House, young housemaid Lily feels life is changing for everyone – decisions are being made by others for her friend Maeve de Markievicz, the countesses daughter, and Lily fears for her new friend Sam also. Can Lily help her friends without getting into too much trouble?
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€9.50
This stunning, magical Christmas tale, from the author of the hugely popular Last Stop on the Reindeer Express, celebrates the joy of giving and the importance of love and family at Christmas. Christmas for Benji has lost its magic. This year his family can’t afford a tree, or even a turkey.
But then he stumbles upon the most extraordinary department store, where polar bears talk and the presents are out of this world. But maybe the real magic of Christmas is waiting for him at home . . .
Children will love discovering the true meaning of Christmas with this delightful seasonal story. The Christmas Department Store is the perfect Christmas gift for fans of Julia Donaldson and Victoria Sandoy’s The Christmas Pine, Dr Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Chris Van Allsburg’s The Polar Express.
