Eavan Boland
Eavan Boland is the author of Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in Our Time. Against Love Poetry is her most recent collection of poems.
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain (Penguin, $17). I’m always struck by the difference between “the past” and “history.” For that reason, this seems the most eloquent of all the First World War memoirs. Maybe because it’s not written from the center of the action at all, but from a quiet corner—a young woman watching her world disintegrate.
Burned Child Seeks the Fire: A Memoir by Cordelia Edvardson (Beacon, $10). Edvardson is the daughter of a German poet I admire, Elizabeth Langgässer. She spent part of her adolescence in Auschwitz as Mengele’s assistant. This is a searing Holocaust memoir, only recently translated.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Dead as Doornails by Anthony Cronin (Lilliput, $18). The best account of Irish literary life in the ’50s. A bittersweet critique of the waste, exuberance, and self-destruction of writers like Patrick Kavanagh, Brendan Behan, and Myles na Gopaleen. It begins as memoir and ends as elegy.
Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer by Richard Holmes (out of print). Just the perfect book of and about biography. The main biography in this series of linked portraits is of the biographer himself: part snoop, part groupie of the lost lives of his heroes. Plus magical, subversive reconstructions of 19th-century writers like Stevenson, Shelley, and Wollstonecraft.
Charlotte Mew and Her Friends by Penelope Fitzgerald (out of print). An essential book. Fitzgerald reconstructs the quirky, wounded life of a wonderful poet—a sexual and literary outsider in 19th-century London.
The Hidden Ireland
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Iran president dead in helicopter crash
Speed Read Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were found dead at the site
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
'Time-honored political tactic: Throw your wife under the bus'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Best non-alcoholic spirits for summer cocktails
The Week Recommends As hard liquor takes a backseat for many, the ingredients for the perfect mocktail are dryly delicious
By Ellie O'Mahoney, The Week UK Published
-
Cynthia Carr's 6 favorite books that explore social issues
Feature The former culture writer recommends works by Ling Ma, Olga Tokarczuk, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Tom Crewe's 6 favorite works that challenge societal norms
Feature The novelist recommends works by Margaret Oliphant, Patrick White, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Daniel Wallace's 5 favorite books that should not be forgotten
Feature The author recommends works by Italo Calvino, Evan S. Connell, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Sarah Langan recommends 6 women-centric horror books
Feature The horror novelist recommends works by Stephen King, Gillian Flynn, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Amanda Montell's 6 favorite books that will expand your knowledge
Feature The linguist recommends works by Mary Roach, Alice Carrière, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Rowan Beaird recommends 6 compelling books from the 1950s
Feature The author recommends works by Patricia Highsmith, Shirley Jackson, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Stephen Graham Jones' 6 scary books with deeper meanings
Feature The best-selling author recommends works by Stephen King, Sara Gran, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Keith O'Brien's 6 must-read books about significant moments in sports history
Feature The best-selling author recommends works by Laura Hillenbrand, Jonathan Eig and more
By The Week US Published