Books

Questioning Irish neutrality, scrutinising literature and finding the meaning of life. By Edward O'Hare

Dr Patrick Geoghegan looks at an indispensable guide to Irish politics and the leaders we've loved to hate from the Act of union to the present

Gormenghast, Guggenheims and glass books

A collection of wonderfully colourful letters to Leitrim novelist and teacher Michael McLaverty reveals a side of the late John McGahern usually not shown to the public. Review by Eamon Maher

The state of Israel is under threat, not from military instability or Palestinian militancy but from its own moral contradictions. A new book explores the anti-Zionist movement. By David Shanks

Con Houihans columns from the Evening Press are missed by many, but now they have been gathered together in a collection called 'A Harvest'. Rosita Sweetman reviews

A Harvest
By Con Houlihan
Published by Boglark Press
€14.95

Cal and the Amazing Anti-Gravity Machine by Richard Hamilton. Illustrated by Sam Hearn. Bloomsbury Children's  Books, €7.40. Ages 12+

Idi and I; Partners in mind; Genderbender

Author Thomas Pynchon hasn't been photographed for 50 years, and has never been interviewed. His books are multi-layered, chaotic, fantastical and extraordinary. Edward O'Hare reviews his new novel, which could be his best yet

Richard Dawkins sets out to drive religion to extinction in The God Delusion. The book, however, has little new to offer. It is deeply flawed, data-free and full of double standards, says H Allen Orr