Quintessentially Irish

Irish writers are making a big impact on readers around the world. In this session Claire Mabey from Verb Festival holds a zoom discussion with two of Ireland’s finest.

Claire Keegan’s books are short and perfectly honed. She became an international bestseller with her first novel, Small Things Like These, about a coal merchant whose eyes are opened one Christmas to the horror behind the walls of his biggest customer, a laundry run by nuns. Subsequent novellas include Foster and So Late in the Day.

Audrey Magee’s The Colony was long-listed for the Booker Prize, and she has spoken about her admiration for New Zealand’s first Booker winner – Keri Hulme. Magee’s book is set on a remote island and explores the impact of two summer visitors – an English artist and a French language scholar – and of the violence in the north.