Books

Discussed this week are The Fourth Hand by John Irving, Paulo Coehlo's new book The Zahir and The Hill Road by Patrick O'Keefe

Sinéad Gleeson meets John Banville, whose latest novel The Sea is out this week

Frostbite, hypothermia and savage beatings. Polar exploration or tales of conquest in the Americas? Actually, it's Ireland

The book is in no way autobiographical, but every now
and then you get the sense that Elmore Leonard, who is now pushing 80,
may be reflecting on the nature of his own vocation. By Charles McGrath

Another of the book's short-listed for the 2005 Bisto Book of the Year Awards and another journey through the angst-ridden, teenage world.

Two books to be published shortly, Sinatra: The Life by Summers & Swan and Reagan's White House Diaries. Alexander McCall Smith's In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, Cervantes' Don Quixote  and Paolo Coelho's The Zahir are also included this week.

Rick Moody, author of The Ice Storm, tells Sinéad Gleeson why he dislikes being labelled, has visited Sandymount, and thinks going to church isn't 'totally uncool'

Short listed for this year's Bisto Book of the Year Awards, The Gods and their Machines is a first novel by Oisín McCann – and what an impressive and assured debut it is.

Books this week are A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, by Marina Lewycka, We Need to Talk About Kevin by  Lionel Shriver,With No One As Witness by Elizabeth George. The British Book of the Year Awards and Sheila Hancock's The Two of Us.

Essential advice from Póilín on Tribunals and terriers