The Read Irish Women Challenge was born in 2019, the creation of our colleague Karina Clifford. It takes the form of a series of prompts (one for each day in April); each prompt asks you to respond with the title of a book by an Irish woman. It has proven hugely popular on social media, with readers of all ages and in many countries joining in to share their favourites. Here are some of our favourite new books by Irish women.
Love was the final consolation, would set ablaze the fields of my life in one go, leaving nothing behind. To make a beautiful man love and live with me had seemed-obviously, intuitively-the entire point of life. How could it be true that a woman like me could need a man's love to feel like a person, to feel that I was worthy of life?
Winner of the An Post Irish Book Awards Non-Fiction Book of the Year... A Dubray Staff Recommended Read... A fluid hybrid of essay and autofiction to explore the ways in which a life can be changed in response to the discovery of another's - in this case, Eibhli n Dubh Ni Chonaill's Caoineadh Airt Ui Laoghaire, famously referred to by Peter Levi as `the greatest poem written in either Ireland or Britain during the eighteenth century.'
WINNER OF THE 2020 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION The Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller Winner of the Books Are My Bag Reader's Choice Award Shortlisted, An Post Novel of the Year
A Dubray Staff Recommended Read... After a troubled and tragic childhood, Eliza is invited to the UK to visit her two godmothers, Olivia and Maxie. Throwing caution to the wind, Eliza accepts and takes a leap into the unknown...
A Dubray Staff Recommended Read... Twins Anna and Adam live in an abandoned commune in a volatile landscape where they prepare for the world-ending event they believe is imminent.
Winner of the An Post Irish Book Awards Crime Fiction Book of the Year... This bold, brilliant, disturbing new novel Louise O'Neill shows that deadly secrets are devastating to those who hold them close.
WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES / PFD YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEARA SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER AND TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEARFrances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed and observant.
A breathtaking mix of memoir, nature writing and history: this is Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s story of a wild Ireland, an invisible border, an old conflict and the healing power of the natural world.
Call it a daily meditation on the world around us for nature-lovers and nature newbies alike, An Irish Nature Year gleefully explores the small mysteries of the seasons as they unfold - Who's cutting perfect circles in your roses? Which birds wear feathery trousers? And what, exactly, is an amethyst deceiver?