Other books that might interest you

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  A Handful of Stars (NHB Modern...

  Billy Roche

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  A gripping but warm-spirited snapshot of life in a small southern Irish town.
  In the sleepy Irish town of Wexford, where shotgun weddings are outnumbered only by random acts of violence, the pool hall is Jimmy's sanctuary. But will such a place embrace his bright ambition, or bring it down, burning, to the ground?
  Originally part of Billy Roche's The Wexford Trilogy, A Handful of Stars was first performed in 1988 at the Bush Theatre, where it won the John Whiting Award and the Plays and Players Award for Best New Play.
  This edition was published alongside the play's first professional stand-alone revival at Theatre503, London.
  'Simultaneously mean and warm, stifling and nourishing, comic and sad' - The Times
  'Funny, rueful and tender... has the potency of truth' - Telegraph
  'Carefully observed... almost unbearably honest' - Time Out
  'A nice balance of comedy and tension... [has] a great deal of warmth' - A Younger Theatre

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  Bogboy (NHB Modern Plays)

  Deirdre Kinahan

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  Two lost souls – a young heroin addict and a reclusive middle-aged farmer – discover a budding friendship in the bogs of Meath, until a terrible secret comes to light.
  Deirdre Kinahan's short play Bogboy was originally written as a radio play for RTÉ. It was first staged by Tall Tales theatre company at Solstice Arts Centre in 2010.
  The play is also available in the collection Deirdre Kinahan: Shorts.
  'Creates an atmosphere thick with dread and loneliness, with pungent, pared-down language' - New York Times

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  Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám The...

  Omar Khayyám

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  The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward Fitz-Gerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. A Persian ruba'i is a two-line stanza with two parts (or hemis-techs) per line, hence the word "Rubáiyát" (derived from the Arabic root word for "four"), meaning "quatrains". 
   
  The translations that are best known in English are those of about a hundred of the verses by Edward FitzGerald (1809–1883). Of the five editions published, four were published under the authorial control of FitzGerald. The fifth edition, which contained only minor changes from the fourth, was edited after his death on the basis of manuscript revisions FitzGerald had left. FitzGerald also produced Latin translations of certain rubaiyat. 
   
  As a work of English literature FitzGerald's version is a high point of the 19th century and has been greatly influential. Indeed, The term "Rubaiyat" by itself has come to be used to describe the quatrain rhyme scheme that FitzGerald used in his translations: AABA. However, as a translation of Omar Khayyam's quatrains, it is not noted for its fidelity. Many of the verses are paraphrased, and some of them cannot be confidently traced to any one of Khayyam's quatrains at all. Some critics informally refer to the FitzGerald's English versions as "The Rubaiyat of FitzOmar", a nickname that both recognizes the liberties FitzGerald inflicted on his purported source and also credits FitzGerald for the considerable portion of the "translation" that is his own creation. In fact, FitzGerald himself referred to his work as "transmogrification". "My translation will interest you from its form, and also in many respects in its detail: very unliteral as it is. Many quatrains are mashed together: and something lost, I doubt, of Omar's simplicity, which is so much a virtue in him" (letter to E. B. Cowell, 9/3/58). (Introduction from Wikipedia) 
   
  This recording includes readings of all five editions by Edward Fitzgerald as well as the introduction to the third edition. (Note by Algy Pug)

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  Good Poems

  Garrison Keillor

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  The poetry-loving host of public radio’s The Writer’s Almanac collects favorite poems from the show and reads them with a number of contemporary poets.Good Poems includes poems about lovers, children, failure, everyday life, death, and transcendence. It features the work of classic poets, such as Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost, as well as the work of contemporary greats such as Howard Nemerov, Charles Bukowski, Donald Hall, Billy Collins, Robert Bly, and Sharon Olds.Some poems are wise, some are funny, some are soothing or heartwarming. All were chosen for their wit, frankness, passion, and, in Keillor's words, their “utter clarity in the face of everything else a person has to deal with at 7 a.m.”The poems are read by Keillor and a number of the poets including:Garrison KeillorRoy Blount, Jr.Robert BlyDavid BudbillHayden CarruthBilly CollinsStephen DunnEdward FieldDonald HallJennifer Michael HechtLouis JenkinsGalway KinnellMaxine KuminOrville LundSharon OldsLinda PastanGerald SternJoyce SutphenHenry Taylor

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  In Accelerated Silence - Poems

  Brooke Matson

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  “Anguished and unblinking . . . Accomplished poetry that will move those who have sorrowed—that is, everyone.” —Library Journal 
   
  “The thin knife that severed your tumor,” writes Brooke Matson in these poems, “it cleaves me still.” What to do when a world is split—terribly, wholly—by grief? When the loss of the beloved undermines the most stable foundations, the most sacred spaces, of that world? What else but to interrogate the very fundamental principles themselves, all the knowns previously relied on: light, religion, physical matter, time? 
   
  Often borrowing voices and perspectives from its scientific subjects, In Accelerated Silence investigates the multidimensional nature of grief and its blurring of boundaries—between what is present and what is absent, between what is real and imagined, between the promises of science and the mysteries of human knowing, and between the pain that never ends and the world that refuses to. The grieving and the seeking go on, Matson suggests, but there comes a day when we emerge, “now strong enough / to venture out of doors, thin // and swathed in a robe,” only to find it has continued “full and flourishing and larger than before.” 
   
  Sensual and devastating, In Accelerated Silence—selected by Mark Doty as winner of the Jake Adam York Prize—creates an unforgettable portrait of loss full of urgency and heartache and philosophical daring. 
   
  “Blends chemistry, astrophysics, light, and time with grief, mystery, resilience, and love into some truly gorgeous poems that you don’t have to be a scientist (or a poetry nerd) to love.” —Electric Literature

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  The Swan Island Connection - A...

  Dorothy Johnston

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  "All children were a mixture of innocence and guile, Chris Blackie thought, but the innocence had been squashed out of Bobby McGilvrey unnaturally young." 
  A shocking murder rocks the quiet coastal Victorian town of Queenscliff, a place where police work usually entails minor traffic infringements and dealing with the occasional Saturday night drunk. Local senior constable Chris Blackie and his deputy Anthea Merritt fully expect a murder investigation to be handled by the Criminal Investigation Unit based in Geelong. But they’re blind-sided by the interest shadowy figures from the secret military training base on nearby Swan Island take in the case. Consigned to the edges of the investigation and fearing an imminent wrongful conviction, Chris and Anthea defy their superiors to follow their own lines of enquiry — at great personal risk. 
  A worthy addition to Dorothy Johnston’s sea-change mystery series, The Swan Island Connection follows on from Through a Camel’s Eye, once again bringing the Australian coastal town of Queenscliff to life.

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