Book Club

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‘Strange Flowers’ by Donal Ryan

Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan

In 1973 Moll Gladney goes missing from the Tipperary hillside where she was born. Slowly her parents, Paddy and Kit, begin to accept that she’s gone forever. But she returns, changed, and with a few surprises for her family and neighbours.

Nothing is ever the same again for the Gladneys, who learn […]

May 23rd, 2023|Tags: , , |

‘The Victory of Sinn Fein’ by P.S. O’Hegarty

The Victory of Sinn Fein by P.S. O’Hegarty

A valuable first-hand account of the tumultuous events in Ireland from 1916 to 1923, written from a now almost forgotten viewpoint – that of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. O’Hegarty’s heroes were Arthur Griffith, the founder of Sinn Fein, and Michael Collins.

March 28th, 2023|Tags: , , |

‘Small Things Like These’ by Claire Keegan

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both […]

February 28th, 2023|Tags: , , |

‘Beautiful World, Where Are You’ by Sally Rooney

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, […]

January 24th, 2023|Tags: , , |

‘Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?’ by Séamas O’Reilly

Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? by Séamas O’Reilly

After the untimely death of his mother, five-year-old Séamas O’Reilly and his ten siblings were left to the care of their loving but understandably beleaguered father. In this thoroughly delightful memoir, we follow O’Reilly and the rest of his rowdy clan as they learn to cook, clean, do […]

November 29th, 2022|Tags: , , |

‘Snow’ by John Banville

Snow by John Banville

The year is 1957 and the Catholic Church rules Ireland with an iron fist. Strafford—flinty, visibly Protestant, and determined to identify the murderer—faces obstruction at every turn, from the heavily accumulating snow to the culture of silence in this tight-knit community. As he delves further, he learns the Osbornes are not at […]

October 25th, 2022|Tags: , , |

‘Thin Places: A Natural History of Healing and Home’ by Kerri Ní Dochartaigh

Thin Places: A Natural History of Healing and Home by Kerri Ní Dochartaigh

Kerri ní Dochartaigh was born in Derry, on the border of the North and South of Ireland, at the very height of the Troubles. She was brought up on a council estate on the wrong side of town—although for her family, and many […]

September 27th, 2022|Tags: , , |

‘Holding Her Breath’ by Eimear Ryan

Holding Her Breath by Eimear Ryan

When Beth Crowe starts university, she is haunted by the ghost of her potential as a competitive swimmer. With her Olympic dreams shattered after a breakdown, she is suddenly free to create a fresh identity for herself outside of swimming. Striking up a friendship with her English major roommate, Beth […]

August 23rd, 2022|Tags: , , |

Walking with Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne

Walking with Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne

As a young boy growing up in the outskirts of Dublin, Gabriel Byrne sought refuge in a world of imagination among the fields and hills near his home, at the edge of a rapidly encroaching city. Born to working class parents and the eldest of six children, he harbored a childhood […]

May 24th, 2022|Tags: , , |

Belfast Girls by Jaki McCarrick

Belfast Girls by Jaki McCarrick

Escaping the Irish famine in 1850 five young women seek passage on a ship to Australia. For many of the ‘orphan girls’ on board, the voyage offers a fresh start. But some girls find they cannot escape the memory of the lives they’ve left behind – and that the closer they get […]

April 26th, 2022|Tags: , , |

A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa

A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa

A true original. In this stunningly unusual prose debut, Doireann Ni Ghriofa sculpts essay and autofiction to explore inner life and the deep connection felt between two writers centuries apart. In the 1700s, an Irish noblewoman, on discovering her husband has been murdered, drinks handfuls of his blood […]

March 22nd, 2022|Tags: , , |

In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World by Pádraig Ó Tuama

In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World by Pádraig Ó Tuama

There’s an old Irish proverb: ‘It is in the shelter of each other that the people live’. In this book much-loved poet, storyteller, theologian and speaker Pádraig Ó Tuama applies ideas of shelter and welcome to journeys of life, using poetry, story, biblical reflection […]

February 22nd, 2022|Tags: , , |

Milkman by Anna Burns

Milkman by Anna Burns

In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes ‘interesting’. […]

January 25th, 2022|Tags: , , |

The Story We Carry in Our Bones by Juliene Osborne-McKnight

The Story We Carry in Our Bones: Irish History for Americans by Juliene Osborne-McKnight

From 3800 B.C. to the twentieth century, this comprehensive history examines the course of Irish-Americans. Celtic legends, the evolution of Christianity, the coming of the Vikings, and the time of the Tudors are just some of the topics covered in these pages. Juilene […]

November 30th, 2021|Tags: , , |

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hunting Party.

The bride – The plus one – The best man – The wedding planner – The bridesmaid – The body

On an island […]

October 26th, 2021|Tags: , , |

Apeirogon by Colum McCann

Apeirogon by Colum McCann

From the National Book Award–winning and bestselling author of Let the Great World Spin comes an epic novel rooted in the unlikely real-life friendship between two fathers.

Bassam Aramin is Palestinian. Rami Elhanan is Israeli. They inhabit a world of conflict that colors every aspect of their lives, from the roads they are […]

September 28th, 2021|Tags: , , |

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Frances is a coolheaded and darkly observant young woman, vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. Her best friend is the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi. At a local poetry performance one night, they meet a well-known photographer, and as the girls are then gradually drawn into […]

August 24th, 2021|Tags: , , |

Amongst Women by John McGahern

Booker Prize shortlist (1990)
Guinness Peat Aviation Award (1990)- The judge for that year was John Updike.
The Irish Times/Aer Lingus Literary Award (1991)

The novel is set in County Leitrim in the rural midlands of Republic of Ireland. The story spans a period of twenty years in the middle of the twentieth century. It centres on Michael Moran, […]

May 25th, 2021|Tags: , , , |

Constellations: Reflections from Life by Sinéad Gleeson

“These brilliant essays read as if Gleeson has made a vow to her readers to illuminate what it means to live in a human body–for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health–all the days of her life. Come for the dark jokes and existential dread. Stay for the beauty […]

April 27th, 2021|Tags: , , , , |

Leabhar na hAthghabhála: Poems of Repossession, ed. Louis de Paor

This is the first comprehensive critical anthology of modern poetry in Irish with English translations. It forms a sequel to Seán Ó Tuama and Thomas Kinsella’s pioneering anthology, An Duanaire 1600-1900 / Poems of the Dispossessed (1981), but features many more poems in covering the work of 26 poets from the 20th century. It includes […]

March 23rd, 2021|Tags: , , , , , , |

The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth

“A richly absorbing and emotionally abundant play…An instant classic.” –Independent
“A mighty affair, sending stories, characters, history, politics and love skittering across the floor with the flair of a gambler rolling dice. It’s a stunning piece of writing: teeming with life; haunted by death…Butterworth takes the great family drama and makes it his own.” –Financial Times
“An […]

February 23rd, 2021|Tags: , |

Eggshells by Catriona Lally

Irish Book of the Year Finalist!
An Amazon Best Books of the Year So Far pick!

A whimsical, touching debut about loneliness, friendship and hope…
Vivian doesn’t feel like she fits in – and never has. As a child, she was so whimsical that her parents told her she was “left by fairies.” Now, living alone in Dublin, […]

January 26th, 2021|Tags: , |

Last Stories by William Trevor

With a career that spanned more than half a century, William Trevor is regarded as one of the best writers of short stories in the English language. Now, in Last Stories, the master storyteller delivers ten exquisitely rendered tales-nine of which have never been published in book form-that illuminate the human condition and will surely […]

November 24th, 2020|Tags: , |

Unraveling Oliver by Liz Nugent

“Searing, searching, finally scorching. Think Making a Murderer via Patricia Highsmith: an elegant kaleidoscope novel that refines and combines multiple perspectives until its subject is brought into indelible, tragic focus.” –A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window
“Pitch-black and superbly written.” –Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author […]

October 27th, 2020|Tags: , , , |

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR NONFICTION
A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE
BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR – TIME MAGAZINE
A WASHINGTON POST TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Named a best book of the year by The […]

September 22nd, 2020|Tags: , , , , |