We're now officially just past the halfway mark of 2023 - so it’s the perfect time to pause and cast a glance over the cultural highlights of the last six months.
Here are ten of the best Irish books of 2023 so far…
Elaine Feeney - How to Build a Boat
Galway native Feeney announced herself with aplomb in 2020 with the keenly-observed As You Were, but her second novel is even better. A beautifully-written, tenderhearted story about a neurodiverse 13-year-old with a big ambition, and his two teachers whose lives are transformed in their bid to help him achieve it.
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Liz Nugent - Strange Sally Diamond
Liz Nugent is best known as a celebrated writer of crime fiction, but this may be her most twist-riddled book to date. Sally is a reclusive but likeable eccentric who is forced to confront the world - and her traumatic past - when her over-protective father dies. A hugely entertaining page-turner.
Aoife Barry - Social Capital
Journalist Aoife Barry delves into the impact that the likes of big tech companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter have had on Irish society, including her own sobering first-hand experience of an online stalker. A fascinating personal exploration of social media and the positive and negative effect it has on people’s lives (read an extract here).
Kevin Curran - Youth
He works as a teacher in the multicultural town of Balbriggan, so Kevin Curran is well-placed to write a story about youth. His first novel is an evocative account of the lives of four teenagers in the north county Dublin town; oblivious to each other, but with more in common than they realised. A sharp, keenly observed and seriously impressive debut (read an extract here).
Claire Kilroy - Soldier, Sailor
Motherhood is one of those life experiences that nothing can prepare you for. This novel, however, goes some way to explaining and exploring both the brutality and beauty of early motherhood, viewed through the eyes of the narrator (Soldier) as told to her son (Sailor). An often terrifying, but truthful, gripping read.
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Mark O’Connell - A Thread of Violence
The baffling story of Malcolm Macarthur has been written about countless times over the last few decades, yet few have managed to delve into his psyche in the way that Mark O’Connell has. With unprecedented access to the one-time socialite-turned-murderer, O’Connell weaves a seriously compelling narrative.
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Sarah Gilmartin - Service
Restaurant kitchens have become a popular backdrop for writers across all formats in recent years, from TV show The Bear to films like The Menu. Sarah Gilmartin’s excellent second novel offers a clever twist on the genre, with three cleverly intertwining stories (Daniel, a chef, Julie, his wife and Hannah, a former waitress) that explores the fallout of a sexual assault allegation at a fine dining restaurant in Dublin.
Karl Geary - Juno Loves Legs
At surface-level, Juno Loves Legs is a simple story of a girl (Juno) and a boy (Legs) who meet and form a fast friendship in 1980s Dublin. There is so much more to Karl Geary’s excellent second novel, which is a bruising, brutal but ultimately beautiful account of two troubled misfits and the tenacious journey they take together across the years. A bittersweet sucker-punch of a story (read an extract here).
Kerri ní Dochartaigh - Cacophony of Bone
Ní Dochartaigh’s 2021 debut Thin Places was a startling introduction to her worldview and her difficult childhood and adolescence during the Troubles in Derry. Her second book comes from a lighter place. Told via nature-infused diary entries, essays and poetry as she navigated the pandemic, a new home and an unexpected pregnancy, it’s an exquisite patchwork quilt that celebrates both the big and small moments in life.
Caroline O’Donoghue - The Rachel Incident
The ‘Irish millennial’ trope has been done to death in recent years, but this is a sharp, wryly original take on the sub-genre. This quirky, eminently readable, funny and intermittently dark novel is set against the backdrop of UCC and documents the exploits of Rachel and her best friend James, who find themselves in a complex situation when Rachel falls in love with her English professor.
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Paul Murray - The Bee Sting
Paul Murray's fourth novel saw him being described by one reviewer as "Dublin’s answer to Jonathan Franzen", which is actually not too far off the mark. The Bee Sting cemented him as a master of character and wide-ranging themes, as viewed through the lens of an affluent Irish family post-financial crash. Funny, sad and highly entertaining.
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