Dublin Lost Found

A smart and hilarious memoir of privilege and excess told by the son of a powerful, seductive member of the New York elite. Ben Sonnenberg grew up in the great house on Gramercy Park in New York City that his father, the inventor of modern public relations and the owner of a fine collection of art, built to celebrate his rise from the poverty of the Jewish Lower East Side to a life of riches and power. His son could have what he wanted, except perhaps what he wanted most: to get away. Lost Property, a book of memoirs and confessions, is a tale of youthful riot and rebellion. Sonnenberg recounts his aesthetic, sexual, and political education, and a sometimes absurd flight into “anarchy and sabotage,” in which he reports to both the CIA and East German intelligence during the Cold War and, cultivating a dandy’s nonchalance, pursues a life of sexual adventure in 1960s London and New York. The cast of characters includes Orson Welles, Glenn Gould, and Sylvia Plath; among the subjects are marriage, children, infidelity, debt, divorce, literature, and multiple sclerosis. The end is surprisingly happy.

Archaeologists and historians find it easy to chat about their finds and experiences but rarely commit these to paper in such an informal way. The 31 essays that make up this book include personal insights and experiences from an array of people investigating, researching and just being interested in the history and archaeology of Ireland. The pitch of the essays is towards the general reader and thus the first chapter begins: My favourite discovery occurred just before Christmas 2000...'. Other titles include Two stones make a line' (Stefan Bergh), Do you think you will find the Ark of the Covenant before Indiana Jones?' (Mairead Carew), The elephant and the tunnel' (Conor Newman), and A day in the life of a medieval fisherman' (Aidan O'Sullivan) .

The book presents a critical edition and translation of a newly discovered early Irish legal text on lost and stolen property, Aidbred, and also includes editions of two other texts concerning property found on land, Heptad 64, and at sea, Muirbretha.