Helena Fairfax

If ever there were a country that loves a good story, Ireland must be it.  My family is Irish, and sometimes I wonder if this is why I love books and reading and stories so much.  Writing is so engrained in the Irish way of life that Dublin is known as the City of Literature.  You can do a literary pub crawl round Dublin – as I once did, on a memorable occasion, and a great craic it was.

So, let’s order a pint of Guinness, go sit in the snug and sit down to talk books. 

I’ve chosen five great Irish books today, three of which I’ve read already. The others are on my reading list and I’m dying to read.

First up is Star of the Sea, by Joseph O’Connor.  I read this novel in just about one sitting.  Set during the time of the great Irish famine in the 1840s, the Star of the Sea of the title is a ship bound for America, with a hold full of Irish fleeing the famine. 

Here is the blurb: In the late spring of 1847, from an Ireland torn by injustice and natural disaster, the Star of the Sea sets sail for New York. On board are hundreds of fleeing refugees, some brimming with optimism, many more desperate. Among them are a maidservant with a devastating secret, bankrupt Lord Merridith and his wife and children, an aspiring novelist, a maker of revolutionary ballads, all braving the Atlantic in search of a new life.

But a killer is stalking the decks, hungry for the vengeance that will bring absolution. A novel as urgently contemporary in its preoccupations as it is historically revealing, this gripping and compassionate tale from the award-winning author of The Salesman and Inishowen builds with the pace of a thriller to an unforgettable conclusion.

He has a beautiful prose style. The narrative is broken down into extracts from letters, the ship’s log, newspaper clippings, etc.  It’s a totally page-turning read, too, like a gripping Victorian melodrama.  I highly recommend it. 

Last Train From Liguria, by Christine Dwyer Hicky.  This novel was recommended to me by my 93-year-old aunt, who gets the Irish Times and saw it reviewed in there.  It’s had blinding reviews, including a great one here by Joseph O’Connor.

Here’s the blurb: Last Train from Liguria takes us on a journey from claustrophobic Dublin and the tense formality of London, to the heat and bustle of the Italian Riviera. Bella lives a cosseted life with her father in London. So when he announces that he has arranged for work for her as a governess in Italy, she is shocked, angry, and terribly scared of what lies in store…But as she boards a train for the northern Italian port of Bordighera, her fear soon gives way to her burgeoning sense of adventure. Bella eventually finds her young charge, Alec, at the Villa Lami, where he lives with his music teacher Edward. She delights in her relationship with the young boy, and discovers unexpected comfort in Edward who, like Bella, seems to be hiding a secret. But the atmosphere in Italy is changing quickly. As fascist laws take effect, Bella, Edward and Alec must escape the mounting threats around them, and face a rapidly changing world.

High up on my to read list is Walk the Blue Fields, by Claire Keegan  This is a collection of short stories set mainly in rural Ireland, with a set of characters familiar to readers of Irish fiction: strong, independent women, self-questioning priests, people who are unhappy with their isolated lives, feckless male figures.  But the stories are far, far more than a set of familiar characters.  This review in the Guardian states:  ‘Keegan takes the clichés of Irish rural life and sets them ablaze’. 

I recently read Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, now a film with Cillian Murphy, and loved it. I’m looking forward to catching up with these earlier short stories.

I read Emma Donoghue’s Room many years ago.  I read so many novels that sometimes, quite honestly, books and authors don’t stick in my mind, but this one definitely did.  It was made into a film in 2015.

Here is the blurb: Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it’s not enough … not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son’s bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

My final choice is by an author I’m absolutely dying to read, as I’ve heard so much about her.  It’s To the North, by Elizabeth Bowen, first published in 1932.  Here’s an extract from the blurb:

Two young women in 1920s London, the recently widowed Cecilia Summers and her late husband’s sister, Emmeline, set up house together and gradually become more entwined than they know.   Cecilia, capricious and unsure if she can really love anyone, moves reluctantly toward a second marriage; Emmeline, a gentle and independent soul, is surprised to find the calm tenor of her life disturbed for the first time by her attraction to the predatory Mark Linkwater. Bowen’s psychological acuity is on full display in a conclusion that plumbs the depths of this seemingly detached young woman in a single, life-shattering moment.  

I’ve read so many fantastic reviews of this book.  I particularly loved this review on Booksnob, where the reviewer says: Sitting at my desk all day at work, knowing I had to wait hours before the brilliant book smouldering away in my bag could be opened again, was torture.

These are just five great novels from a whole wealth of Irish literature.  I could go on and on, but my pile of books to read is growing higher and higher every day.  Still, there’s always next St Paddy’s Day. Slainte!

Have you read any of these novels in my selection?  Are there any great Irish novels you’ve read that you think should be on the list?  If so, please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you!