Thomas Kinsella

Irish literature exists in two languages. A dual approach is necessary if the tradition, with its historical, political and semantic tensions, is to be understood - indeed, if some of its features are to be appreciated at all. Separate Gaelic and Anglo-Irish anthologies and commentaries have long been readily available, but commentaries dealing with the total Irish literary response are rare. In The Dual Tradition Thomas Kinsella presents a view of poetry in Ireland from early times to the present day, concentrating on the periods of most radical adjustment and change: the coming of Christianity; Norman and later settlement; the end of the bardic period; colonialism and dispossession; politics before the Famine and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He brings Yeats and Joyce into new focus and considers in special detail the poetry of Austin Clarke, Patrick Kavanagh and Samuel Beckett. The translations from the Irish are by the author.

'Late Poems' brings together Thomas Kinsella's five most recent Peppercanister volumes. Each is a coherent whole and also constitutes a section of the ongoing project of his writing. He explores the great themes of the spirit, the body and the body politic.

From Centre City - Thomas Kinsella's first book since 1988 - continues with the poems of family and social history of Blood and Family, collecting together five recent publications from his own Peppercanister Press. There are two longer poems in this body of personal poetry from the poet's home places, the city of Dublin, and his new home in County Wicklow. The book opens with 'One Fond Embrace', a private accounting, and ends with 'Open Court', set in one of the crowded literary scenes from the city's recent past.

For centuries Mira has been a nightwalker—an unstoppable enforcer for a mysterious organization that manipulates earth-shaking events from the darkest shadows. But elemental mastery over fire sets her apart from others of her night-prowling breed . . . and may be all that prevents her doom.The foe she now faces is human: the vampire hunter called Danaus, who has already destroyed so many undead. For Mira, the time has come to hunt . . . or be hunted.

This is a seminal work for the study of Irish poetry. Kinsella's translations are not the horrid rhyming things one sometimes encounters in literature in translation, but rather vivid and imaginative faithful renditions. Many readers will find this to be the stuff of depression since it is chock full of the cries of a disenfranchised people.

AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ‘A richly imagined, intricate tale of magic and intrigue’ DEBORAH HARKNESS, #1 bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches ‘Riveting… Leigh Bardugo's characters are so three dimensional you want to reach through the page’ DIANA GABALDON, #1 bestselling author of Outlander ‘A wonderful, transporting ride through history… a deeply romantic novel’ KATHERINE ARDEN, bestselling author of The Bear and The Nightingale