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, each asking 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.
A Dubray Staff Recommended Read... What happens when you lose something the world never knew was yours? A shattering and compulsive novel about transgression and desire, secrecy and loss.
A glimpse into the process of one Ireland's best writers, handiwork is Baume's non-fiction debut, written with the keen eye for nature and beauty as well as the extraordinary versatility Sara Baume's fans have come to expect.
Below a Big Blue Sky will make you laugh, cry and shout with joy for the colourful, unruly Hayes family as they battle with the loss of their beloved Rabbit, the daughter, mother, sister and friend, who in her own crazy way taught each of them how to live, and goes on showing them how to love from beyond the grave.
RECIEVE A FREE COPY OF 'MOUTHPIECES' BY EIMEAR MCBRIDE WITH YOUR ORDER. A nameless woman enters a non-descript hotel room she's been in once before, many years ago. 'Eimear McBride is that old fashioned thing, a genius.' Anne Enright
Robin and Ruth meet in the staff room of an East London school. Robin, desperate for a real connection, instantly falls in love. Powerless, Robin watches on as the girl he loves and his best friend begin a passionate and turbulent affair.
For readers of Eimear McBride, Anna Burns and Claire Louise Bennett, This Happy is a fervid, glowing-hot novel about relationships and the way the past informs the present from a hugely exciting new voice in contemporary literary fiction.
Lyons' first novel gives voice to a female character on her fraught journey into adulthood and charts her evolution as an artist, as her adolescent dissociation is thawed through contact with the physical world, the materials of painting and her engagement with Irish community, culture and landscape.
DUBRAY STAFF RECOMMENDED READ. The first novel truly to capture the story of Ireland during the BSE crisis, shown through the small, deeply intimate stories of four people caught up in its churn.