7 Contemporary Irish Authors to Read This St. Patrick’s Day

Colm Tóibín
Now that Brooklyn has been nominated for an Oscar, more people than ever before know Tóibín’s name—and that is a very good thing. His status as a living link to Irish history is unparalleled: his grandfather was arrested during the 1916 Easter Rising, and his father was a member of the IRA. Tóibín’s work often explores Irish characters moving into unfamiliar cultures, which allows him to explore both with a deep intelligence and perceptive style that elevates his works above what are often fairly simple plots. He has commented that he grew up in a house with a “great deal of silence” and that his work “comes out of silence.” Ponder those statements while you’re reading some of the best writing of the modern age this St. Patrick’s Day.

Neil Jordan
Jordan is perhaps most famous for his 1992 film The Crying Game, which remains a cultural touchstone both for its shocking twist and its moody, detailed study of the Irish Troubles. But Jordan is a brilliant novelist as well as screenwriter, and has published five novels and a short story collection in addition to his film work. His 2011 novel, Mistaken, won the Irish Book Award, and tells the story of a man named Kevin who has a double named Gerald living near him in Dublin, a man he’s mistaken for many times over the course of his life—and whom he only gets to know after Gerald’s death. Jordan’s fiction, like his films, explores themes of perception and the divide between superficial visuals and the reality underneath, employing a clear, poetic style.

Tana French
Known as the First Lady of Irish Crime, French burst onto the scene with her 2007 debut novel In the Woods, which won several awards including the Edgar for Best First Novel. A master of twists that tie seamlessly into the psychologically rich themes of her story, French is that rare novelist who weaves together the violent shocks of a modern thriller with a more cerebral and thoughtful approach to characterization and thematic development, making her books much more than simple mysteries. The examination of contemporary Ireland present in much of her writing makes reading her work worthwhile on a whole other level.

Emma Donoghue
After Room, everyone knows who Emma Donoghue is, but Room is Donoghue’s seventh novel. No stranger to book awards and high praise, Donoghue has long been celebrated inside and outside Ireland. Her work often incorporates LGBTQ themes and explores the status and role of women in the modern world, and her novels have oscillated between contemporary settings like Room‘s and historical tales—in fact, her followup to Room, Frog Music, and her upcoming novel, The Wonder, are both historicals. Although Donoghue now lives in Canada with her partner and children, she remains one of Ireland’s greatest living writers—and someone we’ll no doubt hear a lot more from in years to come.

Roddy Doyle
Consider this: The Commitments was Roddy Doyle’s debut novel. The first novel in the Barrytown Trilogy, following the exploits of the Rabbite family, it introduced the world to Doyle’s incredible ear for Irish slang and dialect that make the characters’ speech rhythms almost lyrical in the way they flow on the page. His 1993 novel, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha, won the Man Booker Prize that year, and he has written children’s books, screenplays, and memoirs. Prolific and affectionate toward his characters and the culture they live in, Clarke’s work is often hilarious and tinged with profanity, making his books the ideal literature to bring with you to your local watering hole for a pint or two.

Anne Enright
It took Enright four novels to break out, but when she did (with 2007’s Man Booker Prize winner The Gathering), it was huge. Now recognized as one of the most formidable writing talents around, she writes books that explore family relationships and tend to have an elastic view of reality, usually resulting in a deep dive into the human condition and all the pathos, insanity, and tears that can inspire. The Gathering, about a woman dealing with her grief, confusion, and family in the wake of her brother’s suicide, is an excellent starting place, the sort of novel that leaves you sitting in silence for some time after you’re done, contemplating what you’ve just experienced.

Kevin Barry
Impossible to pin down to a particular genre or style, Barry is one of those novelists who is almost as much fun to listen to in interviews as he is to read. His 2011 novel City of Bohane is a wildly inventive story set in Ireland in the year 2053, a time in which technology and civilization have degraded and gangs fight over the titular city and speak in a futuristic patois that can take some getting used to. His 2015 novel Beatlebone, on the other hand, is told from the point of view of John Lennon in 1978, escaping to an island off the coast of Ireland to get his head together and encountering a surreal and insanely entertaining adventure—a story that works in large part because Barry nails the voice of his fictional Lennon. He’s easily one of the most inventive and least predictable writers alive today.