Dear Great Book Guru, This weekend I will be at Dinner & THE DEAD at the Metropolitan Bistro. I had tried to attend last month, but it was quickly sold out. Well, it sold out again, but I learned my lesson and got my tickets early on. I’ve read “The Dead” by James Joyce many times, so now I would like to read a contemporary Irish writer to get me in the spirit of things. Any recommendations? Interested in All Things Irish

Dear Interested…. I recently read Kevin Barry’s NIGHT BOAT TO TANGIER - a New York Times choice as one of the ten top books of 2019. Two longtime friends, Maurice and Charlie - aging Irish gangsters - spend the night in a seamy ferry terminal awaiting the arrival of young Dilly - the estranged daughter of Maurice. The men have shared much - a sordid drug operation spanning many years, a failed real estate scheme, and…. Cynthia, Maurice’s wife. The hollow grimness of their existence, their menacing overtures throughout the evening, and the futility of their mission are all couched in horrifying albeit beautiful prose. Is it love these men share or is it simply a painful history? As chapters alternate between the past and present - between Ireland and Spain - we come to see how their dreams unraveled.  Highly recommended!