‘The money is a great boost, but I don’t have a permanent job. We’re poor on both sides of the table’

Galway-based novelist Mike McCormack is suddenly experiencing the full glare of success thanks to his novel Solar Bones. But it’s been a long, slow, sometimes unrewarding route to literary acclaim, he tells Nadine O’Regan

Mike McCormack at The Claddagh in Galway City: ‘Women have been the heroes of this book’ Pic: Michael Dillon

Mike McCormack knows he’s stubborn. He doesn’t even try to deny it.

“It’s true,” the Galway-based writer says, with a smile so wide I can hear it down the phone line. McCormack can smile because that stubbornness has worked for him. For years, even decades, it didn’t seem like it would.

McCormack has published five books. Two are short story collections. Three are novels. He has faced countless rejections over the course of ...