Irish Fiction

Colm Tóibín’s The Heather Blazing details the life of Eamon Redmond, a judge in Ireland’s high court, a man remote from his wife, his son and daughter and, at least outwardly, from his own childhood. The life he has built for hims…

A modern classic work of Irish literature, this award-winning novel is an exploration of love, art and identity.  This was the night train to Barcelona, some hours before the dawn. This was 1950, late September.I had left my husba…

One house, three strangers... Tessa. Activist, 69 years young. Not ready to sell up her big seaside house, but she knows a little help around the place would do wonders.Conn. Looking for a quiet place to heal after a family trag…

Helen’s beloved brother Declan is dying. Now, she must join her mother and grandmother in a crumbling old house by the sea, three generations calling an uneasy truce after years of strife, to be by his side. Together with Declan’s…

Sean is back. Back in Belfast and back into old habits. Back on the mad all-nighters, the borrowed tenners and missing rent, the casual jobs that always fall through.Back in these scarred streets, where the promised prosperity of …

In sixteen sparkling stories, Jan Carson introduces us to worlds and characters that feel real enough to touch. All of life is here: the thrill of growing up, the grief when youth is over; first love, mature love, parenthood and l…

It’s 1990 in London and, after the death of a young girl on an estate, the finger of suspicion is pointing at one reclusive Irish family: the Greens. At their heart sits Carmel: beautiful, other-worldly, and once destined for a fu…

Sally Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died. Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media…

Jean Kennedy is a gentle, perceptive girl growing up in a very strange world: suburban Dublin in the 1970s and '80s. In the company of her mother, her Aunty Ida, and her little brother Baby John F., Jean experiences love and joy. …

Who is the other woman? That's for you to decide.Ann devoted years to her mother's care - and now she's gone, Ann feels lost.Justin is also grieving, but his wife is still alive. Deborah is in a coma and she doesn't have long left…

Juno loves Legs. She always has, ever since she fought the bullies for him in their first encounter at school.Growing up on the estate is tough for them both, but as they emerge into the possibilities and underground parties of 19…

Traditional hedgerows are rapidly vanishing from our countryside. With their disappearance, we lose not only their flora and fauna but also the tales and folklore that have always surrounded them. This book records these stories b…

One unremarkable afternoon, Rosie watched her daughter Saoirse cycle into town, expecting to hear the slam of the door when she returned a few hours later. But the slam never came.Eight years on, after an extensive investigation i…

Grace lives alone in Ballybrady, a little village on the sublimely beautiful east coast of Northern Ireland. She fills her days with swimming, fishing, quilting, and baiting the tourists who arrive from the city with more money th…

Tom Kettle, a retired policeman, and widower, is settling into the quiet of his new home in Dalkey, overlooking the sea. His solitude is interrupted when two former colleagues turn up at his door to ask about a traumatic, decades-…

As Ballina prepares for its biggest weekend of the year, the simmering feud between small-time drug-dealer, Cillian English, and County Mayo's enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum.When…

Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry can be considered to be Carleton’s greatest work. It went through a number of transformations before the ‘definitive edition’ was published in 1842-44. This edition was the last that Carle…

Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry can be considered Willian Carleton's greatest work. It went through a number of transformations before the 'Definitive Edition' was published in 1842-44. This edition was the last that Car…

Orpen has always been an outsider in Phoenix City - the only outsider admitted to the ranks of the banshees. As one of them, she protects the city from the skrake, the ravening creatures that have laid waste to the country outside…

SHE SAID YES TO A DINNER INVITATION. NOW SHE'S A MURDER SUSPECT . . . A visit to her old university takes an unexpected turn for solicitor Finn Fitzpatrick when she receives an exclusive invitation. She is far from high profile on…