An early morning on a beach in Virginia. As he is taking his daily swim, Arman Bajalan - formerly an interpreter in Iraq - discovers a dead body. After surviving an assassination attempt that killed his wife and child, Arman has been given lonely sanctuary in the US. Now, sure that the murder is connected to his past, he knows he's still not safe.

Seasoned detective Catherine Wheel and her fresh-off-the-beat partner have little to go on beyond a bus ticket in the man's pocket. It leads them to Sally Ewell, a local journalist as grief-stricken as Arman by the Iraq war, who is investigating a nefarious corporation: one on the cusp of landing a multi-billion-dollar government defence contract.

As victims mount around Arman, taking the team down wrong turns and towards startling evidence, they find themselves in a race, committed to unravelling the truth and keeping Arman alive - even if it costs them everything.

A Line in the Sand is a sinuous, powerful and white-knuckle thriller, from the award-winning author of The Yellow Birds, shot through with treachery, trauma and the long tentacles of war.

Art honours the world, and criticism honours art, even - perhaps especially - when the critic sets out to destroy. The bad review is hardly ever written out of mere spite. In most cases, the motivation is disappointed idealism. Critics are people who love art and who hate to see it traduced. Hence the critic's sempiternal cry: You're doing it wrong. What the critic wants is for you to do it better. Since 2008, acclaimed novelist Kevin Power has reviewed almost three hundred and fifty books. Power declares, 'Even now, cracking open a brand-new hardback with my pencil in my hand, I feel the same pleasure, and the same hope. That's the great secret: every critic is an optimist at heart.' Art that thinks and feels at the same time - 'good art' - requires explication. The writing of criticism in response to such art is an activity that has taken place since Aristotle first sat down to figure out what made tragedy work. It is in the pursuit of this question - what makes good art 'good' - that Kevin Power found his vocation. During a ten-year stint as a regular freelance reviewer for the Sunday Business Post, Power fell in love with the writing of criticism, and with the reading of it, too, particularly by talented novelists who review books on the side. His conclusion is that criticism is absolutely an art. But it is never more so than when practiced by an actual artist. These pieces, ranging from reviews of Susan Sontag to the meaning of Greta Thunberg, apocalyptic politics, and literary theory, represent a decade's worth of thinking about books; a record of the author's attempts to honour art, and through art, the world. In The Written World, Power explains how he became a critic and what he thinks criticism is. It begins and ends with a long personal essays, 'The Lost Decade', written especially for this collection, about his mental and writing block after publishing Bad Day in Blackrock and his decade-long journey to White City. The pieces gathered by Power are connected by a theme - this is a book about writing, seen from various positions, and about growth as an artist and a critic.

FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE YELLOW BIRDS 'A stunning novel' New York Times 'A kickass mystery from a superb storyteller' David Baldacci, author of The 6:20 Man 'A spellbinding and totally original thriller' Philipp Meyer, author of The Son An early morning on a beach in Virginia. As he is taking his daily swim, Arman Bajalan - formerly an interpreter in Iraq - discovers a dead body. After surviving an assassination attempt that killed his wife and child, Arman has been given lonely sanctuary in the US. Now, sure that the murder is connected to his past, he knows he's still not safe. Seasoned detective Catherine Wheel and her fresh-off-the-beat partner have little to go on beyond a bus ticket in the man's pocket. It leads them to Sally Ewell, a local journalist as grief-stricken as Arman by the Iraq war, who is investigating a nefarious corporation: one on the cusp of landing a multi-billion-dollar government defence contract. As victims mount around Arman, taking the team down wrong turns and towards startling evidence, they find themselves in a race, committed to unravelling the truth and keeping Arman alive - even if it costs them everything. A Line in the Sand is a sinuous, powerful and white-knuckle thriller, from the award-winning author of The Yellow Birds, shot through with treachery, trauma and the long tentacles of war. 'A tense, twisting, and thoughtful story of the intersection between grief and greed' Michael Koryta, author of Never Far Away

From the highly acclaimed author of Bad Day in Blackrock – inspiration for the 2012 award-winning film What Richard Did, directed by Lenny Abrahamson... ​ Shortlisted for the 2021 An Post Irish Book Awards Eason Novel of the Year... A darkly funny, gripping and profoundly moving novel about a life spinning out of control, a life live without the bedrock of familial love, and the corruption of material wealth that tears at the soul. ‘It was my father’s arrest that brought me here, although you could certainly say that I took the scenic route.’ Here is rehab, where Ben – the only son of a rich South Dublin banker – is piecing together the shattered remains of his life. Abruptly cut off, at the age of 27, from a life of heedless privilege, Ben flounders through a world of drugs and dead-end jobs, his self-esteem at rock bottom. Even his once-adoring girlfriend, Clio, is at the end of her tether.  Then Ben runs into an old school friend who wants to cut him in on a scam: a shady property deal in the Balkans. The deal will make Ben rich and, at one fell swoop, will deliver him from all his troubles: his addictions, his father’s very public disgrace, and his own self-loathing and regret. Problems solved. But something is amiss. For one thing, the Serbian partners don’t exactly look like fools. (In fact they look like gangsters.) And, for another, Ben is being followed everywhere he goes. Someone is being taken for a ride. But who? Praise for White City: 'I can't recommend it enough. It's often hilariously funny but it's also a sharp and smart dissection of contemporary materialism' John Boyne, author of The Heart's Invisible Furies 'An immensely enjoyable and tautly written account of a young man from an affluent family whose life of privilege is turned upside down' Sunday Times 'Spiky, blackly funny novel that offers an incisive study on class, entitlement and masculinity' Independent 'Capacious and comic, luxuriantly written, with an intricate plot and heightened characterisation… both riotous rant and thoughtful coming-of-age tale' Dublin Review of Books 'Outstanding second novel... A brilliantly entertaining novel that is profound in the most unexpected ways. Power is that rarity, a genuinely funny novelist... Yet all the more remarkable is Power's handling of tone: this novel moves effortlessly between humour and sincerity; it is steeped in empathy and raw anger' Literary Review ‘White City is likely to be the most solid, well-rounded novel to come out of Ireland this year… At once a pacy page-turner with a nerve-frazzling plot and a realistic and haunting tale of our interconnected world… White City is an all-round superb book that will stay with you long after the inevitable binge read’ Irish Independent 'White City synthesises familiar forms into a whole: the rogue’s confession, the young man finding his way, the post-Celtic Tiger satire on puffed-up, self-perpetuating bullshit businesses… Power shows his own capacity for comic timing and pithy aperçus' Guardian  ' An extremely funny book… Kevin Power shows his chops as a proper heavyweight novelist. Unequivocally one of the most purely enjoyable books, in the classic-novel sense… a zinger on every page' Peter Murphy, Arena (RTE Radio 1)  '[A] sprawling social satire of the sort we seldom see in Irish fiction… a tremendously zesty and zeitgeisty piece of writing' Sunday Times (Ireland) ‘[T]his dark caper evolves to ask searching moral questions… with its 11th-hour twist, this ambitious, attention-grabbing novel seems ripe for cinematic adaptation’ Daily Mail   ‘Kevin Power’s Bad Day in Blackrock (2008) was one of the most memorable Irish novels of the new century… White City has passages of striking lyrical subtlety and the different storylines are managed with great dexterity. Much has changed in Ireland since Bad Day in Blackrock was published, but as Power’s adept and absorbing new novel reminds us, much has not. White City demands to be read’ Irish Times ‘A fast-paced and wickedly funny novel. Hugely entertaining. White City grabbed me from the opening pages and didn't let go’ Danielle McLaughlin, author of The Art of Falling 'Wild and beautiful, a whole addictive and breathlessly compelling world squeezed between these covers... A magnificent novel from a writer who is soaring to the most spectacular heights' Billy O'Callaghan, author of Life Sentences 'White City is a dark, hilarious and emotionally profound study of the toxic effects of greed and entitlement. Also, a story brilliantly and movingly told. Couldn’t stop reading it. Will read it again' Ed O'Loughlin, author of Not Untrue and Not Unkind  '[A] biting page-turner… Power’s writing is both strong and savage' John Walshe, The Business Post ''Funny, and gorgeously written, and just relentlessly entertaining' Mark O'Connell, author of Notes from an Apocalypse 'This is part thriller but mostly a look at what it means to grow up... This novel is pleasing on so many levels, both intellectually & emotionally... You'll laugh, you'll cry... Read it, read it, read it' Claire Hennessy, author, editor & publisher at Banshee Press 'The kind of novel that makes writers jealous and readers cancel all their plans to finish it. As a commentary on the classless contemporary upper class, it's cutting and hilarious; as a portrait of the artist as a young man waylaid by his membership in that class, it's profound, unpretentious, unapologetically intelligent, and, again, really hilarious' Lauren Oyler, author of Fake Accounts 'White City is brilliant on the high-octane vacuity of Ireland’s rentier class. Power’s trademark shimmering prose counterpoints a driving narrative... Brilliant' Eoin McNamee, author of Resurrection Man and The Blue Tango

A novel written by a veteran of the war in Iraq, "The Yellow Birds" is the harrowing story of two young soldiers trying to stay alive.
"The war tried to kill us in the spring." So begins this powerful account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. Bound together since basic training when Bartle makes a promise to bring Murphy safely home, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for.
In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes actions he could never have imagined.
With profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on mothers and families at home, "The Yellow Birds" is a groundbreaking novel that is destined to become a classic.

With an introduction by Kevin Powers. A groundbreaking piece of journalism which inspired Stanley Kubrick's classic Vietnam War film Full Metal Jacket. We took space back quickly, expensively, with total panic and close to maximum brutality. Our machine was devastating. And versatile. It could do everything but stop. Michael Herr went to Vietnam as a war correspondent for Esquire. He returned to tell the real story in all its hallucinatory madness and brutality, cutting to the quick of the conflict and its seductive, devastating impact on a generation of young men. His unflinching account is haunting in its violence, but even more so in its honesty. First published in 1977, Dispatches was a revolutionary piece of new journalism that evoked the experiences of soldiers in Vietnam and has forever shaped our understanding of the conflict. It is now a seminal classic of war reportage.

From the highly acclaimed author of Bad Day in Blackrock - inspiration for the 2012 award-winning film What Richard Did, directed by Lenny Abrahamson... Shortlisted for the 2021 An Post Irish Book Awards Eason Novel of the Year... A darkly funny, gripping and profoundly moving novel about a life spinning out of control, a life live without the bedrock of familial love, and the corruption of material wealth that tears at the soul. 'It was my father's arrest that brought me here, although you could certainly say that I took the scenic route.' Here is rehab, where Ben - the only son of a rich South Dublin banker - is piecing together the shattered remains of his life. Abruptly cut off, at the age of 27, from a life of heedless privilege, Ben flounders through a world of drugs and dead-end jobs, his self-esteem at rock bottom. Even his once-adoring girlfriend, Clio, is at the end of her tether. Then Ben runs into an old school friend who wants to cut him in on a scam: a shady property deal in the Balkans. The deal will make Ben rich and, at one fell swoop, will deliver him from all his troubles: his addictions, his father's very public disgrace, and his own self-loathing and regret. Problems solved. But something is amiss. For one thing, the Serbian partners don't exactly look like fools. (In fact they look like gangsters.) And, for another, Ben is being followed everywhere he goes. Someone is being taken for a ride. But who? Praise for White City: 'I can't recommend it enough. It's often hilariously funny but it's also a sharp and smart dissection of contemporary materialism' John Boyne, author of The Heart's Invisible Furies 'An immensely enjoyable and tautly written account of a young man from an affluent family whose life of privilege is turned upside down' Sunday Times 'Spiky, blackly funny novel that offers an incisive study on class, entitlement and masculinity' Independent 'Capacious and comic, luxuriantly written, with an intricate plot and heightened characterisation... both riotous rant and thoughtful coming-of-age tale' Dublin Review of Books 'Outstanding second novel... A brilliantly entertaining novel that is profound in the most unexpected ways. Power is that rarity, a genuinely funny novelist... Yet all the more remarkable is Power's handling of tone: this novel moves effortlessly between humour and sincerity; it is steeped in empathy and raw anger' Literary Review 'White City is likely to be the most solid, well-rounded novel to come out of Ireland this year... At once a pacy page-turner with a nerve-frazzling plot and a realistic and haunting tale of our interconnected world... White City is an all-round superb book that will stay with you long after the inevitable binge read' Irish Independent 'White City synthesises familiar forms into a whole: the rogue's confession, the young man finding his way, the post-Celtic Tiger satire on puffed-up, self-perpetuating bullshit businesses... Power shows his own capacity for comic timing and pithy apercus' Guardian ' An extremely funny book... Kevin Power shows his chops as a proper heavyweight novelist. Unequivocally one of the most purely enjoyable books, in the classic-novel sense... a zinger on every page' Peter Murphy, Arena (RTE Radio 1) '[A] sprawling social satire of the sort we seldom see in Irish fiction... a tremendously zesty and zeitgeisty piece of writing' Sunday Times (Ireland) '[T]his dark caper evolves to ask searching moral questions... with its 11th-hour twist, this ambitious, attention-grabbing novel seems ripe for cinematic adaptation' Daily Mail 'Kevin Power's Bad Day in Blackrock (2008) was one of the most memorable Irish novels of the new century... White City has passages of striking lyrical subtlety and the different storylines are managed with great dexterity. Much has changed in Ireland since Bad Day in Blackrock was published, but as Power's adept and absorbing new novel reminds us, much has not. White City demands to be read' Irish Times 'A fast-paced and wickedly funny novel. Hugely entertaining. White City grabbed me from the opening pages and didn't let go' Danielle McLaughlin, author of The Art of Falling 'Wild and beautiful, a whole addictive and breathlessly compelling world squeezed between these covers... A magnificent novel from a writer who is soaring to the most spectacular heights' Billy O'Callaghan, author of Life Sentences 'White City is a dark, hilarious and emotionally profound study of the toxic effects of greed and entitlement. Also, a story brilliantly and movingly told. Couldn't stop reading it. Will read it again' Ed O'Loughlin, author of Not Untrue and Not Unkind '[A] biting page-turner... Power's writing is both strong and savage' John Walshe, The Business Post ''Funny, and gorgeously written, and just relentlessly entertaining' Mark O'Connell, author of Notes from an Apocalypse 'This is part thriller but mostly a look at what it means to grow up... This novel is pleasing on so many levels, both intellectually & emotionally... You'll laugh, you'll cry... Read it, read it, read it' Claire Hennessy, author, editor & publisher at Banshee Press 'The kind of novel that makes writers jealous and readers cancel all their plans to finish it. As a commentary on the classless contemporary upper class, it's cutting and hilarious; as a portrait of the artist as a young man waylaid by his membership in that class, it's profound, unpretentious, unapologetically intelligent, and, again, really hilarious' Lauren Oyler, author of Fake Accounts 'White City is brilliant on the high-octane vacuity of Ireland's rentier class. Power's trademark shimmering prose counterpoints a driving narrative... Brilliant' Eoin McNamee, author of Resurrection Man and The Blue Tango

An unforgettable depiction of the psychological impact of war, by a young Iraq veteran and poet, THE YELLOW BIRDS is already being hailed as a modern classic. It is also a story of love, of great courage, and of extraordinary human survival. WINNER OF THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and BOOK OF THE YEAR A TLS, GUARDIAN, EVENING STANDARD and SUNDAY HERALD BOOK OF THE YEAR Everywhere John looks, he sees Murph. He flinches when cars drive past. His fingers clasp around the rifle he hasn't held for months. Wide-eyed strangers praise him as a hero, but he can feel himself disappearing. Back home after a year in Iraq, memories swarm around him: bodies burning in the crisp morning air. Sunlight falling through branches; bullets kicking up dust; ripples on a pond wavering like plucked strings. The promise he made, to a young man's mother, that her son would be brought home safely. Written with profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on families at home, THE YELLOW BIRDS is one of the most haunting, true and powerful novels of our time.

Slaughterhous-Five is one of  the world's great anti-war books. Centering on the  infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's  odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey  of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning  in what we are afraid to know.


From the Paperback edition.

One of the Amazon Editors' Best Books of 2018 Following his hugely celebrated debut novel, The Yellow Birds, Kevin Powers returns to the battlefield and its aftermath, this time in his native Virginia, just before and during the Civil War and ninety years later. The novel pinpoints with unerring emotional depth the nature of random violence, the necessity of love and compassion, and the fragility and preciousness of life. It will endure as a stunning novel about what we leave behind, what a life is worth, what is said and unsaid, and the fact that ultimately what will survive of us is love. 'An American Civil War epic [which] confirms Powers as a significant talent.' Observer 'Gorgeous and devastating' New York Times 'Achingly relevant.' Grazia

A novel written by a veteran of the war in Iraq, "The Yellow Birds" is the harrowing story of two young soldiers trying to stay alive.
"The war tried to kill us in the spring." So begins this powerful account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. Bound together since basic training when Bartle makes a promise to bring Murphy safely home, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for.
In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes actions he could never have imagined.
With profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on mothers and families at home, "The Yellow Birds" is a groundbreaking novel that is destined to become a classic.

Hungry Ghosts is set in the Irish village of Kilfian, where everyday life blends with the collective memories and mythology of an ancient land. Michael Flynn returns to the place of his birth to face a childhood tragedy and to rebuild the burnt-out ruin of his family home. To his horror, he discovers that the ghosts of the past are no mere metaphors.The building's restoration unleashes the shades of a forgotten past upon Michael, his family, and the unsuspecting community. To save his daughter's life, and prevent further bloodshed, Michael is forced to confront his family's dark secrets which are entwined with those of the village and the wood on his land.

This is a unique, in-progress showcase of the work of, perhaps, Portugal's finest contemporary artist. For more than 30 years, Portuguese artist Juliao Sarmento has been at the forefront of contemporary art. Often dealing with the complex issue of interpersonal relationships, he has developed a multi-media visual style and language that combines film, video, sound, painting, sculpture and installations.