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February has seen things starting to look up, with vaccines offered to much of the population, and it’s looking like there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We also saw some great reviews for our titles this month…   Exiles by Dónall Mac Amhlaigh Initially published in Irish, this book has garnered interest since its translation into English: Galway Advertiser described Exiles as “an outstanding book by an outstanding author and beautifully translated into English. Highly recommended.”  The Irish Post also describes the “powerful documentation of the experiences of the Irish men and women who arrived in post-war...

Despite everything else going on in the world, Team Parthian started 2021 with our hearts full of hope... and a couple of nice reviews too.  First up was yet another set of praise for Exiles, by Dónall Mac Amhlaigh, translated by Mícheál Ó hAodha - this time from the online arts platform Culture Matters: "Poet Mícheál Ó hAodha has now beautifully translated his late novel Deoraithe (1986) as Exiles. The experience of emigration, unskilled labouring and culture shock for native Irish speakers landing on the English job market, all feed into a gripping read... Mícheál Ó hAodha sensitively renders the Irish vernacular into very readable, authentic Hiberno-English,...

Nathan Munday, in Wales Arts Review, reviews "this wonderful collection" of poems, Natalie Ann Holborow's second collection, published by Parthian last month. "Magic, folklore, witchcraft and mystery – perhaps the most important element bottled in poetry – are unashamedly interwoven with the empirical. The speaker is not afraid to question and wonder. The poems are as colourful and complex as those labyrinthine streets that shore the Ganga of her India poems." In conclusion, he writes: "...her collection is – I’ll use the word again – brave and inspiring. This is a poet who taps into the ‘wonder’ of the ‘child’s...

Niall Griffiths, in the latest issue of Planet, out this month, has reviewed three Parthian novels in translation: Hana by Alena Mornštajnová (translated from Czech by Julia and Peter Sherwood), Insomnia by Alberts Bels (translated from Latvian by Jayde Will) and Exiles by Dónall Mac Amhlaigh (translated from Irish by Mícheál Ó hAodha). Describing Hana as "a shattering book", he goes on: "Mornštajnová knows howto highlight the specific details in which the Devil lurks: the pride in the neatness with which yellow stars are stitched to lapels is truly heartbreaking..." Turning to Insomnia, Griffiths dissects the power of the imagination...