Books

Book review: Eithne Shortall’s The Lodgers is an uplifting tale of the power of the collective

The writer’s fifth novel is filled with well-drawn characters and reverberates with hope

Eithne Shortall: ‘I set out to write a book that acknowledges the tough parts of life, while concentrating on the good . . . That mixes humour with sadness, but always comes back to hope’. Picture: Fergal Philips

The idea for Eithne Shortall’s fifth novel, The Lodgers, came to the writer as Russia was invading Ukraine in 2022. The horror, violence and heartbreak were met, she witnessed, by an outpouring of support from Irish people who opened their homes to refugees.

“I set out to write a book that acknowledges the tough parts of life,” she wrote about the process, “while concentrating on the good. I set out to write a book that ...