The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch by Donna TarttWinner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2014 Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that

a crime whose nature is never revealed to him

An Irish Nature Year gleefully explores the small mysteries of the seasons as they unfold - Who's cutting perfect circles in your roses

When a young Mary McAleese told a priest that she planned to become a lawyer

to assume that people are good

in the first bit of mild weather

From dandelions in spring to sloe berries in autumn

make rosehip syrup and cook a hop omelette

so let's explore what makes our planet and how we live on it

Is Moses Herzog losing his mind

he then delves into the real reasons -- often irrational or unconscious -- he holds them

In these virtuoso writings about books and language

A Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year 2020