Cathy

“We use the word breakdown for both mechanical objects and humans,” writes Irish author Cathy Sweeney in Breakdown, the follow-up to her acclaimed short story collection Modern Times. This debut novel tells the tale of many different breakdowns: the breakdown of friendship, of trust, of society’s expectations of wives and mothers; of the prejudice of an older Irish generation, of hopes, of a marriage and – ultimately – of a human mind.Our narrator is a 52-year-old Dublin teacher, a seemingly happy middle-class woman who…

The Irish writer Cathy Sweeney’s short fiction has been widely praised, her prose likened to that of Samuel Beckett and Lydia Davis. Her blistering debut novel, Breakdown, displays an impressive economy of language as the middle-aged narrator leaves her husband and two children asleep in their suburban Dublin home. We learn their names but she remains anonymous, defined by her roles: mother and wife.The woman’s unplanned escape from domesticity takes her on a train and ferry from Rosslare to Fishguard in Wales. Over the…

The London-based investigative journalists whose earlier books include The Exile, Deception and The Siege, lays bare the US official policy of torture or “Enhanced Interrogation” as the CIA calls it. This book focuses on the case of Abu Zubaydah, a stateless Palestinian, who grew up in Saudi Arabia, and was held six months after 9/11 and accused of being number three in the Al-Qaida. Tortured in custody, two decades on, he continues to remain imprisoned in Guantanamo, “incommunicado forever”, without being charged with…

It starts with Dear Somebody, a harmless little waltz sung by the sweet, folky voice of Cathy Jordan (of Irish traditional band Dervish), accompanied by piano (Liam Noble) and drums (Paul Clarvis). It’s all nice and cosy, except for a short instrumental passage, when the drums and piano sound as though they’re struggling to escape. Is it a gag? Could be. Just listen to the other 12 tracks and enjoy the ride. Next comes Don’t Worry About a Thing, the first of four Mose Allison numbers. The folky voice becomes a tough,…

| Charger County is a new YA graphic novel by Cathy G. Johnson (The Breakaways) described thus; "Liz feels like an outcast at her new high school, Charger County High. Avoiding another season of jocks making fun of her facial scars, Liz decides to join Drama Club for her freshman athletics credit. In the school theatre, she meets tech students Tamara, Brittany, and Robert, all senior girls with a penchant for rebellion. When the spring musical is canceled, they decide to film their own sequel to their favorite action…

Photo: JC Olivera / Stringer (Getty Images)Birds of Prey’s Cathy Yan will executive produce and direct Paprika, a live-action series based on the Yasutaka Tsutsui novel of the same name. The film will be a collaboration between Amazon Studios and Hivemind, according to Deadline.Many people know of Paprika because of the 2006 anime film by Satoshi Kon, which is considered by many to be a masterpiece. As Deadline reminds us, “Paprika is a character-driven sci-fi series with a mind-bending narrative centering around a…