Touchy Subjects is about things that make people wince: taboos, controversies, secrets and lies. Some of the events that characters crash into are grand, tragic ones: miscarriage, overdose, missing persons. Other topics, like religion and money, are not inherently taboo, but they can cause acute discomfort because people disagree so vehemently. These stories are about the spectrum of feeling that runs from awkwardness through embarrassment to shame.

Set in the second half of the eighteenth century, Barry Lyndon is the fictional autobiography of an adventurer and rogue. Born into the petty Irish gentry, and outmanoeuvred in his first love-affair, a ruined Barry volunteers for the British army. After seeing service in Germany he deserts and, after a brief spell as a spy, pursues the career of a gambler in the dissolute clubs and courts of Europe. In a determined effort to enter fashionable society he marries a titled heiress but is fina...

THE GLOBALIST is the first in-depth biography of an international power-broker who was instrumental in shaping the global economy that we know today.PETER SUTHERLAND played a defining role in world history over the past 25 years and was arguably the most influential Irish person ever to have lived. He was Ireland’s youngest ever attorney general; the youngest ever European Commissioner; UN special representative for migration; and special adviser to the Vatican.His landmark...

In 1914, Willie Dunne, barely eighteen years old, leaves behind Dublin, his family, and the girl he plans to marry in order to enlist in the Allied forces and face the Germans on the Western Front. Once there, he encounters a horror of violence and gore he could not have imagined and sustains his spirit with only the words on the pages from home and the camaraderie of the mud-covered Irish boys who fight and die by his side.Dimly aware of the political tensions that have grown in I...

Inspired by the true events of the most notorious evictions in Irish history…1861, Donegal, IrelandTen years ago Declan Conaghan’s father died in the Great Famine, and since then, Declan has kept his promise to keep his family out of the workhouse. But all that is threatened with the arrival of new landlord, John Adair. Adair is quick to cause trouble and fear among his tenants. When he turns them off his land, Declan has no option but to break his promise…...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Battle by Paul O'Connell, read by John Cormack.There has never been a rugby player quite like Paul O'Connell. His name is synonymous with passion, heart and determination. But he is also the thinking man's rugby player, a legendary student of the game.As the heartbeat of Munster, British and Irish Lions captain in 2009, and captain of the first Ireland team to retain the Six Nations championship, O'Conn...

Resurrecting buried scandals, audacious hoaxes and private tragedies, Emma Donoghue has written a sequence of short stories about peculiar moments in the history of the British Isles. Here artists mix with poisoners and countesses rub shoulders with cross-dressers, vicars and revolutionaries; the Second Coming is proclaimed in Scotland; and a miniature girl becomes a tiny skeleton in a London museum.

**"Both heartbreaking and sharply funny...Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey is brilliant and surprising at every turn."—Rebecca Makkai, Pulitzer finalist for The Great BelieversA heart-tugging and gorgeously written novel based on the incredible true story of a WWI messenger pigeon and the soldiers whose lives she forever altered, from the author of Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk.**From the green countryside of England and the gray canyons of Wall Stree...

They had explored every avenue, and it seemed that murder was their only salvation.Reggie and Midge, genteel husband and wife who live in what was the family’s more or less stately home, are now the reluctant managers of Chortlesby Manor Hotel, an English country inn of no particular distinction. But even this transformation will not solve their financial problems. The possibility of succor comes instead in a transatlantic phone call from Midge’s old classmate, Victoria, who is arr...

“This is a truly character-driven novel that explores how people define themselves, the creation of family and home, and the importance of memory and language. . . . Fans of historical epics won’t be able to put this book down.”—Historical Novel Society“Emotionally satisfying. . . . A remarkable character portrait.”—Publishers WeeklyThe author of The Secret Women tells the story of a brave and enduring wom...

In July 2009, Jim Stynes was diagnosed with cancer and given less than a year to live. The diagnosis caught him by surprise – he was 42, healthy, fit – and he didn't have time for illness: he was director of the Reach Foundation, president of Melbourne Football Club, father of two primary school-aged kids, husband of Sam. Knowing his odds weren't good, but with so much to lose, Jim put everything he had into trying to beat the disease. Jim's ability to use mind over matter, to never give i...

Praise for Virginia Macgregor:'I defy you not to fall in love' Clare MackintoshHow do you change what’s already written in the stars?Christopher is the sort of guy that no one notices, yet when Air catches sight of him making intricate paper birds in the airport, she can’t look away.But their worlds are about to collide in ways they never expected. Someone they love is on Flight 0217 from London Heathrow. A...