Books

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's first novel in ten years is a sprightly, perverse little fable about a ninety year old man and a fourteen year old girl's encounter in a brothel in La Paz. Review by Terrence Rafferty

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's first novel in ten years is a sprightly, perverse little fable about a ninety year old man and a fourteen year old girl's encounter in a brothel in La Paz. Review by Terrence Rafferty

The Ballygandon gang are back in this their eighth book and once again Gordon Snell has given us a rattling good read that proceeds at neck-breaking speed from one page-turning incident to another.

In The Holocaust Industry, he argued that the Holocaust had been turned into a compensation industry for the dwindling number of survivors. Now Norman Finkelstein has written a forensic critique of the 'new anti-Semitism' and of Dershowitz's The Case for Israel. Conor McCarthy reviews Beyond Chutzpah

Digitising books is suddenly big news – as if everyone realised that a train loaded with cash is about to pull out of the station and the chance to coin cash is dwindling. Google were first to act as discussed previously and got the good name with Google Print. They set themselves the Herculean task of planning to scan millions of books, a task that was planned to take ten years, moving them from first to last place. Google are also being hampered by a huge class action from US authors.

Anne Rice's new novel Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt is written in the first person, with a seven-year-old Jesus as the protagonist. Holiness meets creature comforts in this well-researched 'incantation'. This is a must for new and old Anne Rice fans

A revealing insight into the workings of Ireland's most influential newspaper

November is proving a pretty dull month at the cinema with the main interest for book lovers being the incoming adaptations of John Le Carré's The Constant Gardener and Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain, both of which arrive here on a tail wind of great reviews. Of most interest in October was a disappointingly unrevealing teaser trailer for The Da Vinci Code, The movie is not due for worldwide release until 19 May 2006. Appearing eight months early should give those still complaining about the festooning of the city in Christmas decorations something to really moan about.

John Banville doesn't shy away from conflict. He clashed with the man who, later as Booker judge, determined his Booker fate. He is disdainful of most contemporary books, yet his next novel, Benjamin Black, is a mystery and he thinks the critics will 'tear him to pieces

In his latest novel, Scott Turow abandons the thriller genre for a story about a son discovering his father's role in World War II. Review by Janet Maslin