Fiction | Business Post

Walk the Line with Sebastian Barry: ‘There’s no career, there’s just life’

The award-winning author on finding your way, the writer’s space and the importance of simple things

Maggie O’Farrell: ‘The best book you’ll write is the one shouting the loudest, tugging your sleeve’

The Irish-born author, who has followed up her acclaimed 2020 novel Hamnet with another absorbing foray into historical fiction set in the 1500s, insists that outside opinion never influences what she writes

Sally Rooney: How one young Irish writer became the voice of a generation

The novelist exploded onto the literary scene seven years ago as a remarkable young talent, but why has she become so irrevocably lodged in the consciousness of contemporary Ireland?

Holiday reads: the best books for you to escape with this summer

In search of a great summer read? We’ve picked out some of our favourite books for you, taking in fiction and non-fiction. Most of the titles have been published within the past year and all of them are available from your local bookshop or online. Fiction reviews are by Andrea Cleary, John Walshe, Nadine O’Regan and Niamh Donnelly, while our non-fiction recommendations have been compiled by Andrew Lynch. Happy reading.

I Shot the Devil: Evil lurks in pitch-black thriller from an Irish/Australian author

Dublin-born Ruth McIver’s bleak and darkly humorous crime novel won Australia’s Richell Prize for emerging writers in 2018 and has just been published here

How to Kill Your Family: Deliciously dark debut keeps murder and revenge in the family

With more than a nod to the classic film Kind Hearts and Coronets, Bella Mackie has produced an anti-hero who is quite willing to murder anyone – as long as they’re family – who gets in her way

The Country of Others: Slimani begins colonial trilogy not with a bang, but with a sprawling saga

The French-Moroccan author eschews the harrowing plots of her previous novels in a fictionalisation of her grandparents’ lives in the 1950s

Beautiful World, Where Are You: Rooney widens her horizons with mesmeric meditation on the modern world

The bestselling Irish author’s third novel has broader concerns than her previous outings, but succeeds on its own terms nonetheless

Elizabeth Day interview: ‘You can feel as though you’re failing because you’re comparing your insides with everyone else’s outsides’

Author Elizabeth Day is perhaps best known for her books and podcast exploring the deep learning and ultimate success that comes only through failure. True to form, her latest novel, Magpie, derives its considerable strength from exploring a very personal vulnerability

All Her Fault: Brilliantly believable evocation of every parent’s worst nightmare

Andrea Mara’s fourth novel is a deft thriller that keeps the reader guessing all the way to the end

Blank Pages and Other Stories: Meditations on loss, grief and death from a creator of entire worlds

With his latest collection, Bernard MacLaverty proves once again that he is a master of the short story form

Something Bigger: Bringing an Irish-American family saga to vivid life

Sheila Killian has deftly fictionalised and recreated the events that led to her grand-aunt leaving Alabama and moving north to New York

56 Days: Thriller set in Ireland’s lockdown days comes with a savage twist

Catherine Ryan Howard’s fifth novel is a lesson in how to expertly plot and shape a contemporary drama

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: A Novel: Tarantino picks up his pen with surprisingly successful results

The director has written a highly entertaining novelisation of his Manson Family murders drama

Everyone Is Still Alive: Debut novel deftly captures the highs and lows of family life

Holding Her Breath: A deep dive into the psyche of a troubled young woman

Eimear Ryan’s debut novel is a compelling tale that oscillates between the contrasting worlds of high-performance sport and literature

The Echo Chamber: Boyne turns an unhappy social media episode into a sharp and funny satire

Novelist John Boyne found himself embroiled in a Twitter storm after his novel My Brother’s Name is Jessica was criticised for its treatment of transgender issues. In his latest novel, he uses the experience to comic effect

The Pages: A novel approach that gets to the heart of politics and storytelling

The retelling of a man’s life through the pages of a novel written during the rise of Nazism is a clever and perceptive way of looking at how populism and displacement during the last century is now happening all over again

Still Life: Big-hearted story is a joyful celebration of people and their imperfections

With echoes of de Bernières, Trapido and EM Forster, Sarah Winman has written a charming novel that is also about the joy and fulfilment that art and culture can bring to our everyday lives

This Eden: Exciting thriller mixes tech polemic with plenty of drama

Ed O’Loughlin’s entertaining fourth novel tackles issues such as data, power and cryptocurrency in a wide-ranging adventure that takes in Vancouver, Silicon Valley, the Middle East and a bridge in Phibsborough