If You Love Irish Writers, Read These Books

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Happy St Patrick’s Day to all who celebrate!

This is my opportunity to recommend some great books by Irish authors. You know about Sally Rooney, of course, and perhaps Caroline O’Donoghue, whose The Rachel Incident was an acclaimed novel of 2023, or Naoise Dolan, whose Exciting Times I very much enjoyed (and whom I interviewed on the Brit Lit Podcast). But I’ve managed to narrow down my post to four recommendations — although you can find more on this list (UK) and this one (US). It’s not very often that I’ll recommend two books by middle-aged white men — both set in New York — in the same post but they are both so good, and I couldn’t write about Irish books without giving them a shout out.

Who are your favourite Irish writers? Let me know in the comments…

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Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

I’m excited to have an excuse to recommend one of my all-time favourite books to you — one I read when I was beginning my own writing journey, and studying other people’s prose carefully to see what I could learn from it. It’s structured around a true 1974 event — Philippe Petit’s walk across a tightrope between the newly built Twin Towers — and tells the stories of five people with very different lives, all looking up towards the sky to take in this astonishing sight, and who turn out to be connected in unexpected ways. This book took my breath away. Colum McCann can make poetry out of anything, including a plastic bag floating through the streets of New York City.

Bookshop US | Bookshop UK | Blackwell’s | Libro.fm

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Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín

It was around the same time that I read Colm Tóibín’s then-newly-published Brooklyn. You may have seen the film with Saoirse Ronan, which I also recommend — it’s one of the few adaptations which, in my opinion, has done its source material justice. In this novel, set in the 1950s, Ellis has the chance to make a new life for herself in New York, leaving her beloved family behind. I still remember how vividly and viscerally Tóibín depicts seasickness, as she makes her way across the ocean. He does the same thing with homesickness, and loneliness, and the choice she has to make when she receives news from back home.

Bookshop US | Bookshop UK | Blackwell’s | Libro.fm (narrated by Saoirse Ronan)

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Disobedient Bodies by Emma Dabiri

“I love the way Dabiri writes,” says poet Hollie McNish in an article in the Guardian on books for a better world. “She delves into such important, dense and globally sprawling topics with the utmost intelligence, both academic and emotional.” Those topics have included allyship in What White People Can Do Next and the history of Black hair culture in Twisted. In Disobedient Bodies, she turns her attention to how capitalism and patriarchy have influenced how we see our physical selves, and how we can break free from that.

Bookshop US (ebook only in the US)| Bookshop UK | Blackwell’s (for the paperback in the US) | Libro.fm

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Holding Her Breath by Eimear Ryan

In 2021, it was rare that literary fiction held my attention. But this beautifully written coming-of-age story — a quick read at just 256 pages — certainly did. When Beth’s dreams of being an Olympic swimmer shatter and she starts university, she’s surprised to discover that her fellow students of English know more about her family history than she does: her grandfather was an acclaimed poet, and her parents have never told her much about him. This is a slow burner, a quiet read, and a character study that asks questions about great art and great artists, and whether we can, and should, separate them.

Bookshop US | Bookshop UK | Blackwell’s | Libro.fm

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More great books by Irish writers can be found here (US) and here (UK).

Feedback is welcome on the format of this newsletter, and please feel free to comment with the thing you love, so I can recommend relevant books for you!

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