THAT most elemental of relationships, the unconditional love between that of a mother and her son, is the most deeply enduring. Or is it? In Toibin's first collection of nine, stand-alone, short stories exploring this theme, the narrative is told from both mother and son's point of view. In 'A Long Winter', an alcoholic woman goes missing (suicidally? ) in the wintry Pyrenees. Any male reader who has ever told his mother to take a hike, or worse, should maybe skip this one. In 'Three Friends', the mother is dead, but her presence is all too palpable. While in another, 'A Song', and my favourite, Noel the singer has a special voice, could sing in perfect harmony with anyone, would that he could live in harmony with his mother. Noel, we are told, is a musician with more skill than flair. A little like his creator's writing. This is thought-provoking stuff, but very grim and devoid of any wit.

Comrades Inside the War of Independence
By Annie Ryan Liberties
15 278pp

BEWARE of oral history. Enjoy it, but beware. This reviewer was once provided with a vivid, eye-witness account of the Battle of Jarama by a 'combatant' who was over 200 miles further south at the time. The interview took place when the man was in his late70s. Memory failure? Annie Ryan's book is made up of statements made by eyewitnesses and participants in the War of Independence. Gripping they are. Shinners in trawlers trying to make contact with German U-Boats to secure arms. Tom Barry's wife, Leslie Price, claimed she went from Dublin to Cork on a "push bike" to deliver a despatch. Hope the message wasn't urgent. Another woman recalls "getting up on a policeman's back and getting my two hands around his throatfI was smacked with a revolver above the earf" Be wary, but enjoy.

The Third Party
By Glenn Patterson
Blackstaff �8.00 168pp

IN PATTERSON'S atmospheric yarn, a Belfast man in the foodwrapping business goes to Hiroshima. The first indication of something dodgy about to happen comes when we read that the business he is in hopes to export a self-sealing bag to Japan. The bag is called the U-Bag. Immediately the reader's mind is jolted. UBag to Hiroshima? Fifty-years earlier, the west delivered another lethal hyphenated message to Japan. In Japan he meets up with belligerent alcoholic novelist. Two Irishmen in Hiroshima. Far from home, naturally they talk, but dislike each other. Drunk: "Last time I was in Limerick there was a near ff. ng riot." "Something you said?" There is irony. A book-reading is delayed by a bomb scare. In Hiroshima. Incidentally, be careful of self-sealing food bags.

The Telling Year Belfast 1972
By Malachi O'Doherty
Gill & Macmillan 17 234pp

IT COMES as a shock to read that three people short of 500 were killed during The Troubles in 1972, the North's bloodiest year.

O'Doherty writes: "we experienced the misery of a city saturated with murder." I'm ashamed to say I had forgotten how vicious it was. And how cynical. Saturday evening was the worst time to have a battle or to bomb because it wouldn't get into the London or Dublin papers. Few come out of the book with any honour; Loyalists, Provos, British army.

O'Doherty scorns them all, strictly even-handedly. Here, in the weft of the everyday, you get close to understanding what it was like to live through that murderous year.

Reasonable Doubts
By Giancarlo Carofiglio
Bitter Lemon Press �9.00 249pp

MAIN man in this legal thriller is defence counsel Guido Guerrieri, the man with a reputation for accepting cases he has little chance of winning. Unfortunately, he is also getting a reputation for accepting any woman he meets up with. Unfortunate, because the latest bed he colonises is that of the wife of the man he is defending, Fabio, a neo-fascist, drug-dealing thug. Why take the risk? A misguided attempt to get more info on his client through pillow talk? This is a thickly-plotted thriller with betrayal seething between every line. Inconsistencies and anomalies pile up, few making any sense. But they will. Dosh, dope and dolls, everything a thriller fan could ask for.