New Island Books

Coming in autumn 2023, the long-awaited latest book in the much loved Sunday Miscellany series from RTÉ Radio 1.

Cork’s most beautifully spoken millionaire is on a mission to help Ireland’s nouveau riche: learn to eat, drink, flirt and behave as if you were a member of Cork’s One Per Cent.

This is the story of a man who never had the life he could have had, born at the wrong time, in the wrong place, moved to another place to leave behind that horror, caught up in another war he was priding himself on staying out of. Blake Knox draws each party carefully in order to highlight the savage reach of the Northern Ireland conflict; not just a sectarian scuffle in a tiny part of north-west Europe. At the heart of this story is a family, several lives destroyed, and the ongoing private cost of war.

There is one thing you must never lose sight of. No matter what life deals you, promise me that you will strive tooth and nail for the right to be happy. Remarkably affecting and gorgeously rendered, this standalone novel completes the real-life story of the unforgettable heroine of Bolger’s bestselling novel, The Family on Paradise Pier, in following a free spirit trying to hold her family together while striving to be happy. This struggle is often heartbreakingly lost, but Eva never loses her indomitable spirit. A towering achievement by one of Ireland’s best-loved authors about the unshakeable bonds of family, the indestructability of love and the price a woman pays for the right to be herself.

These four richly evocative monologues were commissioned for Dublin's Culture Connects: The National Neighbourhood. In them, Dermot Bolger conjures up reimagined lives from the rich tapestry of Dublin life over the past century; stories that conspire to be humorous, mesmerising, shocking and deeply moving.

In the numbness of grief I felt certain I would never write poems again," Bolger claims in his prefatory note. But his readers will be glad that he has done so... (in)... what is ultimately a book of celebration...unflinching and sad - and beautiful.' - Times Literary Supplement

An intimate human study and subtle portrait of a country in flux from New Island author Dermot Bolger.