Excellent Irish Fiction
Discover the best in Excellent Irish Fiction with our curated list of top books. Immerse yourself in captivating stories and timeless classics from Ireland's finest authors.
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The Barracks
by John McGahern
One of the preeminent Irish writers of our time, John McGahern has captivated readers with such poignant and heart-wrenching novels as Amongst Womenand The Dark. Moving between tragedy and savage comedy, desperation and joy, McGahern’s first novel, The Barracks, is one of haunting power. Elizabeth Reegan, after years of freedom—and loneliness—marries into the enclosed Irish village of her upbringing. The children are not her own; her husband is straining to break free from the servile security of the police force; and her own life, threatened by illness, seems to be losing the last vestiges of its purpose.
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Star of the Sea
by Joseph O'Connor
St. Petersburg High school juniors Dicey Bell, a baseball star, and Jack Chen, who loves science and role-playing games, discover a mutual attraction when paired for a project, but on their first date, a zombie-producing fungus sends them on the run.
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The Catalpa Tree
by Denyse Devlin
Thirty-three-year-old writer, Oliver, becomes the guardian of his best friend's 14-year-old daughter, Jude, after the friend's sudden death. In the seven years that follow, they each work through searing personal crises and ill-advised romances to find love with each other. But can it last?
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The Woman Who Walked into Doors
by Roddy Doyle
“This unflinching novel chronicles a woman’s relationship with a violent man in a way that brings fresh insight to the subject . . . engaging and uplifting.” —O, The Oprah Magazine From Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-winning author of The Women Behind the Door, the heartrending origin story of Paula Spencer, a brave and tenacious housewife Paula Spencer is a thirty-nine-year-old mother of four, a blue-collar worker, an alcoholic in recovery—or maybe not. Then one day a police officer knocks on her door. From the look on his face, she can tell it’s not good news. His revelation takes Paula back to the past, to her contented childhood, the audacity she learned as a teenager, the exhilaration of her romance with her husband Charlo, and the violent marriage to him that left her powerless. Now, as she struggles to reclaim her dignity from the abuse that left her with scars and a worsening drinking problem, this new revelation threatens to shatter the fragile peace she’s built for herself and drag her back down the dark paths she thought she’d left behind. Capturing both her vulnerability and strength, Roddy Doyle gives Paula a voice that is singular and real, the story of an ordinary woman whose extraordinary character will stay with you long after this novel and into the subsequent books in his trilogy, Paula Spencer and The Women Behind the Door.
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Angels
by Marian Keyes
After catching her husband having an affair and being fired from her job, Maggie Walsh suddenly finds her perfectly organized existence has become a perfect mess. She decides, for the first time in her life, to do something daring -- and flees to her best friend, Emily, in the faraway wonderland of Los Angeles. In this mecca of tanned, beautiful bodies, unsvelte, uncool Maggie is decidedly a fish out of water. Yet, overnight, she's mixing with film folk, pitching scripts, even experimenting with sex -- and discovering that the end of a marriage is not the end of the world.
