Book of the month

Speaking My Mind, by Leo Varadkar. Published by Penguin, Sandycove, €30

Mention the name Leo Varadkar and it is likely that you will get a variety of reactions. Most people have never met him in person, yet will express views about his personality, beliefs and more, based solely on what they have seen in the media.

Given the divisiveness that he seems to generate, I will admit to approaching his memoir with some trepidation. A serious politician who was in the role of Taoiseach at key periods of Ireland’s recent history, I wondered if this book would reveal anything about the man behind the role or simply be a recall of achievements in office, given some sugar-coating with the benefit of hindsight?

Political memoirs are not generally bestsellers, for good reason, and Varadkar might well have been a little dismayed with some of the mixed reviews of Speaking My Mind. Serious politicos will say that he lightly glosses over some issues, refusing to delve into the type of detail that anoraks savour.

I don’t know if he set out to do this, but in my opinion, he provides a highly readable volume that is accessible to those with only a passing interest in politics. Therein lies its real attraction.

I have always sensed that there was ‘another side’ to Varadkar, and even his fiercest critics will agree that he provides an honest assessment of many happenings during his time as a TD, in cabinet and as Taoiseach. He was ambitious, some will say ruthlessly, but he had a belief from a young age that he wanted to be Taoiseach of Ireland. Is that vanity, ego or just intent? What is wrong with being ambitious?

Born to an Indian father and Irish mother, Varadkar had something of a privileged background, and his start in politics was down to a bit of luck. He was one to grasp an opportunity, though a lack of polish in his utterances sometimes caused him degrees of grief, and lost friendships on occasions.

Hidden from sight was the fact the he was gay, and his outing on RTÉ Radio 1 was transformative, just as his early exit has proven to be in terms of his personal life. Varadkar deals with the good and bad of his 15 or so years in the public eye, admitting when he got it wrong. His fans will already have Speaking My Mind (it does what it says on the tin), while non-fans can gain insight into the private man.

The Booker

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, by Kiran Desai. Published by Hamish Hamilton, €18.99

At the time of writing, the shortlist for the Booker Prize 2025 has been announced, and this year’s judging panel is chaired by the acclaimed Irish author and the prize’s 1993 winner, Roddy Doyle.

Any of the six shortlisted works of fiction would be a worthy winner, but many will feel that it is Kiran Desai’s to lose. She won the Booker in 2006 for The Inheritance of Loss, and now she is back with another classic, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.

This is the story of two young people, an epic story of love and family, India and America, and tradition and modernity.

Since she won the Booker almost two decades ago, Desai has published nothing, until now. This is a big read, ambitious and accomplished, set in the mid-1990s and the early part of the millennium.

The memoir

Mother Mary Comes To Me, by Arundhati Roy. Published by Hamis Hamilton, €20

Continuing the theme of the Booker Prize, here we have a memoir from the winner of the 1997 prize, Arundhati Roy. She won that year for the unforgettable The God of Small Things, a book that divided opinions and led to the author being charged in India with obscenity. It would be 20 years before she published another – shades of Kiran Desai – with this year’s Booker shortlist novel.

Arundhati Roy’s relationship with her mother, Mary, was double-edged. While acknowledging that she shaped her life, Roy would say that it was for good and ill. Roy wished many times that she was not Mary’s daughter, but rather a student of hers at school. Mary was a teacher, and ran her own school, having separated from Roy’s father. Roy has been hugely successful, but also endured abject poverty. She has given us a memoir to remember.

The classic

The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro. Published by Everyman’s Classic (Penguin), €20

With thoughts turning to the Booker Prize, I thought it would be apt to pick a previous winner that has gone on to become a modern classic. This is a book that I enjoyed when it was published, and am happy to revisit from time to time. It also spawned a movie that did not harm its reputation in any way.

Written by Japan’s Kazuo Ishiguro, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017, The Remains of the Daytells, in the first person, the story of Stevens, a man who devoted three decades of his life in service at Darlington Hall, latterly as butler. The book opens with Stevens heading off in an attempt to lure the former housekeeper, Miss Kenton, to return to the role.

Over the course of six days, marked by motoring mishap after mishap, we get to see beneath the polished exterior that Stevens’ role insists on.