Latest news with #SallyRooney
Irish Independent
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Dash of romance, spot of jeopardy, pinch of hope – the recipe for a perfect summer blockbuster
Ostensibly, Emily Henry and Sally Rooney don't have much in common, but their most recent titles, Great Big Beautiful Life and Intermezzo, are two books that you will see repeatedly on holiday, on the beach, by the pool, peeking out of carry-on luggage this summer.
Irish Times
3 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
50 years of women's writing: The 21st century – a boom time... or is it?
This series has revisited women's writing of the past 50 years, tracking its recognition and visibility, and in the 21st century there has been undeniable progress. Irish women have fared exceptionally well, with Anne Enright and Anna Burns winning the Booker Prize, Lisa McInerney and Eimear McBride the Women's Prize; and the rise and rise of the cultural phenomenon that is Sally Rooney . Literary gatekeepers, it would seem, have seen the error of their omission and moved to rectify it. It would be cause for celebration were it not for the pesky numbers. In the past 25 years, there have been 17 male Booker Prize winners to 10 female, two of whom had to share. That's a ratio of almost 2:1, or to spell it out, two great male writers to every great woman writer. In the 21st century. Other prizes tell a similar story. Since 2000, nine women have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction compared to 16 men (two shared). READ MORE The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction (formerly the Samuel Johnson), first awarded in 1999 and billed as the UK's premier annual prize for non-fiction, boasts just eight women winners to 17 men. The shortlists tell their own story: 98 men were shortlisted compared to 50 women, and on only three occasions did a shortlist feature more women than men. These three years boasted a woman winner. Coincidence? No. Shortlists matter. It goes without saying that this year's 25th anniversary one-off 'winner of winners' was a man. The Pulitzer General Non-fiction prize did no better: eight women, one shared with a male winner, to 19 men. (Literary prizes only seem to be shared when there's a woman involved.) It's almost as if subjects of interest to women historians and biographers and journalists could not possibly be of interest to anyone else. Once again, the Women's Prize took up the slack, introducing a non-fiction prize in 2023. Writer and broadcaster Kate Mosse , announcing the launch of the prize, said it was 'not about taking the spotlight away from the brilliant male writers, it's about adding the women in'. You can't argue with the numbers, yet so often that is precisely what happens. To those who would claim that one doesn't need gender balance on every shortlist and panel as long as it evens out in the long run, know this: it never evens out. The counts tell us this again and again: the VIDAs; #WakingTheFeminists' gender analysis of Irish theatre; Anne Enright's 2017 London Review of Books essay, Call Yourself George (fun fact: VIDA, in 2016, found that the London Review of Books had 'the worst gender disparity' in its reviews, with women representing only 18 per cent of reviewers and 26 per cent of authors reviewed). If we are to even pretend that we consider women writers equal to men, gender balance is needed in every literary journal, every newspaper review section, every prize list, long and short: everywhere. Eimear McBride, author of A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, which won the 2014 Women's Prize for Fiction. Photograph: Bryan O'Brien In spite of a system stacked against them, 21st-century women writers flourished. For this woman writer, books kept me sane (by 2008 I had four children), and finally, after an extended apprenticeship, I wrote a couple myself. My PhD on women writing trauma kept me firmly in the zone, with a focus on Eimear McBride's singular novel, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, and its astonishing stage production directed by Annie Ryan. There are too many books to talk about in this period, so I will pretend there is a gun to my head and I must choose just two. The Baillie Gifford in 2004 could not overlook Australian Anna Funder's brilliant Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, which sheds light on life in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), 'the most perfected surveillance state of all time', where it was estimated that there was one informer for every 6.5 citizens. [ A breakthrough era for women's writing, from Edna O'Brien's risks to JK Rowling's Harry Potter debut Opens in new window ] Funder placed an ad in a newspaper asking to speak to former members of the secret police force, the Stasi, and received an overwhelming response. Following leads that took her to the most unexpected of places, she writes about the women 'who sit in Nuremberg puzzling together the shredded files the Stasi couldn't burn or pulp', and East Germans such as Sigrid Paul, who found herself on the opposite side of the wall to her baby, who was being cared for in Westend Hospital in West Berlin. Stasiland is not a history, trotting out impersonal facts; rather, it's a collection of essays, and essays digress. Deploying what Edward Hoagland calls the artful 'I' of an essay and other tools of fiction, Funder weaves her own story through the book, revealing life in the GDR in engaging, witty and often highly personal prose, joining the ranks of the many women essayists who made their mark over the timespan of this series: Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, Anne Lamott, Annie Dillard, Rebecca Solnit, Roxane Gay, Rachel Cusk, Sinéad Gleeson and Emilie Pine, to name but a few. The Booker got it right with Milkman, Anna Burns' 2018 novel, which was also named best Irish fiction title of the 21st century in a recent Irish Times survey. I would go one further and take out the word Irish. Milkman is an extraordinary feat of telling the truth, slant, to invoke Emily Dickinson. Who knew that one of the most insightful and enlightening voices of the Troubles would be that of an unnamed teenaged protagonist who likes to read while walking? 'The day Somebody McSomebody put a gun to my breast and called me a cat and threatened to shoot me was the same day the milkman died,' it begins, and if you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for? The category and methods that have largely defined this series – women and counting – show that progress has been made, albeit from a very low base, yet the gender gap in the literary field stubbornly remains. Not only are women authors seen as producing literature of lower literary value – literary prizes hammer this home again and again – there is even a gendered genre hierarchy. [ The Wardrobe Department by Elaine Garvey: Evocation of youthful self-discovery is well wrought and truthful Opens in new window ] Dutch researcher CW Koolen uses computational analysis and other methods to demonstrate that so-called 'chick lit', usually perceived to have been written by women, is seen as of lesser quality than spy or thriller novels, usually perceived to have been written by men. Counting is dull work, but as long as we live in societies that value and prioritise men's voices and experiences over women's, it remains necessary. (Space does not allow for distinctions of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, economic status, age, education, disability, etc, of the writers discussed in this series, but 'woman' is not a monolith, and over the past 25 years, across forms and genres, women writers have provided essential global sociopolitical perspectives.) This series has been about accountability, but it has also been a celebration of brilliant writing by women that informs, entertains, provokes and inspires. Women like myself, writing in the 21st century, owe an enormous debt of gratitude to our literary foremothers – the essayists, poets, dramatists, critics and novelists – of the past 50 years. Leaning into my personal fiction bias, what other 21st-century flavoured novels would I press into your hand? In no particular order: Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin; 2003's Adolescence; My Year of Rest and Relaxation – the ultimate Millennial read, in which Ottessa Moshfegh's unnamed narrator spends most of the novel sleeping (yet we're still talking about it); Room by Emma Donoghue; Zadie Smith's White Teeth; Jane Urquhart's The Stone Carvers; A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan – playing with all the forms; the Neapolitan novels, of course, by pseudonymous author Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein), starting with My Brilliant Friend in 2012; The Weekend by Australian author Charlotte Wood; Theory and Practice by Sri Lankan-Australian author Michelle de Kretser, for anyone who has ever experienced the dubious pleasures of literary theory with a capital T; and there are so many more. Looking back has been a joy. And now I'm looking forward: here's to the next 50 years of women's writing. Paula McGrath is a novelist and assistant professor of Creative Writing at UCD Reading list Stasiland by Anna Funder (2004) – pulling back the Iron Curtain one essay at a time. Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life (2024) – yes, I'm sneaking in Funder's novel, too. Wifedom combines the biography of Eileen O'Shaughnessy, wife of George Orwell, with personal memoir, exploring for both women what it means to be a writer and a wife. Milkman by Anna Burns (2018) – the GOAT, in this writer's humble opinion. Generation (2015) and A History of Running Away (2017) by Paula McGrath – because if you liked this series, you might enjoy the novels ...
BBC News
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Buzzy titles to blockbusters: 10 of the best summer reads
From buzzy titles like Vincent Latronico's Perfection to Taylor Jenkins Reid's latest blockbuster, here's our pick of the best books to escape with this summer. Whether you're packing for a fortnight spent poolside or just taking advantage of the long evenings in your own garden or local park, the heady days of summer bring with them the desire to lose ourselves in a great book. Luckily, there are plenty to choose from this year. Depending on your tastes, the perfect summer read might mean catching up with 2025's most talked-about novels, immersing yourself in an epic family saga, or enjoying some biting satire on the current state of the world. Either way, these 10 titles are all worthy of escaping with for a few hours. The following numbered list is not ranked. 1. Waist Deep by Linea Maja Ernst A huge bestseller in Denmark, Waist Deep has now been translated into 10 languages, including English by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg. It follows a group of university friends, now in their 30s, who are reunited for a summer holiday in a rural cabin. What begins as a week of swimming, sunbathing and relaxing turns into uneasy self-examination of choices made over the past decade, and lives not lived. Vogue has dubbed this sensual book the "quintessential millennial novel" and it has drawn plenty of Sally Rooney comparisons. Its sun-soaked setting and languid literary vibes are ideal for this time of year. 2. The Names by Florence Knapp Arguably the most buzzed about debut of the year, The Names is a Sliding Doors story of how a name can determine your destiny. Cora sets out to register the birth of her second child, with the three options for his name coming from herself, her husband, and her young daughter. Each choice sends the story in a different direction, showing how split-moment decisions can shape our whole lives. The themes are heavy – namely, domestic violence – but the writing is not, with Knapp skilfully weaving the three stories together to create a book that is as full of hope as it is horror. 3. Perfection by Vincent Latronico This slim (120-page) novel is perfect for when you want to travel light but still read one of this year's most discussed books. Translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes, it tells the story of an expat millennial couple living and working in Berlin as digital nomads. Everything in their lives is carefully curated, from the houseplants and vinyl collection in their Art Nouveau apartment to their social life in the city. It all looks perfect from the outside (especially on the internet), but there's a creeping uneasiness about the inherent emptiness of a life in which aesthetics take priority. This short, sharp satire might make you think twice about posting that poolside selfie. 4. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid It's no coincidence that the latest book from Taylor Jenkins Reid was published just in time for summer. The powerhouse author's novels, which include Daisy Jones & The Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn, have become go-to sun lounger fare thanks to their glamorous retro settings (the '70s rock scene, Golden Age Hollywood; the '90s professional tennis world) and emotional love stories. Reid's latest novel – her ninth – is set in the world of space travel, specifically the 1980s Nasa Space Shuttle mission. Its protagonist, Joan, becomes one of the first women to join the programme and is confronted with huge challenges, both in Mission Control and her relationships with the other astronauts. 5. Flashlight by Susan Choi Choi's last novel, Trust Exercise, was a huge success, scooping the National Book Award for Fiction and making countless best-of-2019 lists – including Barack Obama's. Her follow up looks set to make a similar impact. An ambitious generational saga meets mystery thriller that spans several decades and countries, it is told from the perspective of three members of the Kang family: a white American mother, a Korean father born in Japan, and their mixed-race daughter. The story begins with a disappearance, then ripples out from there for a compulsive read. 6. So Far Gone by Jess Walter Jess Walter is responsible for one of the classic contemporary beach reads, 2012's Beautiful Ruins, which combined a glamorous Italian location with a dose of old Hollywood romance – and even featured appearances from Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Walter's latest has a less chic setting but an equally compelling premise. A retired, reclusive and disillusioned environmental journalist tries to opt out of modern life by going off-grid in his ranch but is forced to re-enter the real world when his daughter goes missing and his grandchildren are kidnapped. Cue a comedic road-trip through a divided America plagued by conspiracy theories. 7. The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine With two short story collections, Wendy Erskine has already gained a reputation as one of the most exciting voices to emerge from Northern Ireland in recent years, and her debut novel only cements that. It centres on three mothers brought together when their teenage sons are accused of sexual assault, but features an expansive cast of characters who together paint a vivid picture of life in contemporary Belfast (The Times said it has "the style of Woolf but the heart of Dickens"). An absorbing, powerful novel about class, trauma and consent. 8. Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis It may have lost out on the Women's Prize, but Fundamentally is still one of the most lauded debut novels of the year. The subject matter - a British academic trying to de-radicalise IS brides – might not immediately scream beach read, but the writing is more hilarious than harrowing. Younis, who spent years working in international relations, even took a stand-up comedy course before writing the book because she wanted it to be a story that, above all, entertains people. Its word-of-mouth success proves it has succeeded at that. 9. The Sisters by Jonas Hassen Khemiri Summer downtime is a great opportunity to tackle a doorstopper novel and, at more than 700 pages, this one is certainly meaty, not only in length but in subject. The sixth novel by Swedish author Jonas Hassen Khemiri is his first written in English (he then wrote it all over again in Swedish) and has been called "a staggering achievement." Following three sisters over three decades and three continents, the novel is told in six parts, each covering a progressively shorter timespan – from a year to a day all the way down to one minute. One to sink your teeth into on the sun lounger. 10. Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin With the New York social scene providing a backdrop, Great Black Hope will allow you to vicariously experience a sweltering summer in the city – though this debut is much more than a simple tale of hedonism. Protagonist David Smith is a queer black Stanford graduate caught between two different worlds. His future looks bright, but when his roommate dies suddenly and he is arrested for cocaine possession at a party in the Hamptons, things start to unravel. This coming-of-age story explores the intersection of wealth and race, as well as friendship, grief and identity, with Vanity Fair hailing it "the novel you'll see by every Hamptons lounger this summer." -- For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Irish Times
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Vona Groarke is new Ireland Professor of Poetry
In The Irish Times tomorrow, Austin Taylor tells Edel Coffey about her debut novel, Notes on Infinity, and there is a Q&A with James Rebanks about his new book, The Place of Tides. Reviews are Karlin Lillington on Empire of AI: Inside the Reckless Race for Total Domination by Karen Hao; Andrew Lynch on The Radical Thinking of Desmond Fennell & The Definite Article: Collected Writings of Michael McDowell; John Walshe on The Dandy: A People's History of Sartorial Splendour by Peter K Andersson; Declan Burke on the best new crime fiction; Gemma Tipton on David Gentleman's Lessons for Young Artists; Mei Chin on Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark by Frances Wilson; Jessica Traynor on The Writings of Padraic Colum: 'That Queer Thing, Genius', edited by Pádraic Whyte and Keith O'Sullivan; John Boyne on Among Friends by Hal Ebbott; Ruby Eastwood on To Rest Our Minds and Bodies by Harriet Armstrong; Miriam Balanescu on Idle Grounds by Krystelle Bamford; Sara Keating on children's fiction; and Colm McKenna on Larry: a New Biography of Lawrence Durrell, 1912–1945 by Michael Haag. This weekend's Irish Times Eason offer is Intermezzo by Sally Rooney, just €5.99, a €6 saving. Eason offer Vona Groarke will be the 10th Ireland Professor of Poetry, taking over from Prof Paul Muldoon. The position will run from September to November 2028. READ MORE Groarke said: 'It may seem strange for the newly minted Irish Professor of Poetry to find herself (almost!) at a loss for words to describe the delight and honour of having been selected for a role some of our finest poets have graced and amplified. 'But I want to express my deep gratitude to the trust for this opportunity. I hope that my tenure will continue the service of my predecessors in highlighting the work of those who've chosen to put the practice of the art and craft of poetry at the very centre of our lives. 'I would like my time as Ireland Professor of Poetry to honour all those individuals and organisations, from teachers to libraries, readers to Irish publishers, whose attentions and efforts help to sustain the work of Irish poets. Together, we contribute to a sense that Ireland, north and south, is a place where poetry happens and continues to matter. I also look forward to engaging with as many aspiring poets and readers of all ages as possible during my time in the role.' Liam Hannaway, outgoing Chair of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and Chair of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust, said: 'I am delighted to witness Vona Groarke joining the great line of fantastic Irish poets who have held the position of Ireland Professor of Poetry. I wish her good fortune and I very much look forward to the freshness and energy which she will bring to the role. I would also like to acknowledge the work of the previous Ireland Professor of Poetry, Paul Muldoon, and thank him for his contribution over the past three years to the appreciation of poetry in Ireland and beyond. It has been a pleasure to have witnessed him at work in that time.' Maura McGrath, chair of the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, and incoming Chair of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust said: 'The appointment of Professor Vona Groarke as the next Ireland Professor of Poetry is a moment of celebration for poetry in Ireland. Vona's work, marked by precision, insight and emotional depth, has long been a cornerstone of contemporary Irish literature. Her appointment recognises not only her outstanding poetic achievements but also her ongoing contribution to the life of the arts in Ireland and beyond. The Arts Council is proud to support the Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust in this important role and looks forward to the ways in which Vona's tenure will inspire readers, students, and fellow poets alike.' The Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust was established in 1998 following the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Seamus Heaney. It was felt that this honour should be marked by choosing, every three years, a poet of honour and distinction to hold the Ireland Chair of Poetry. It is supported by Queen's University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin, as well as by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon. * The Irish Writers Centre has launched its newly revamped International Debut Novel Competition (IDNC) – a global call-out for unpublished fiction writers ready to break through. Formerly known as the Novel Fair, the competition has helped launch dozens of writing careers since 2011, with alumni securing big literary awards and publishing deals. Entrants are invited to submit 5,000 words of their manuscript and a 500-word synopsis between August 1st and September 14th for the chance to pitch directly to publishers and agents during a two-day hybrid event in November. An expert panel will review submissions anonymously, with 12 winners notified on November 7th. Writers such as Orla Mackey (Mouthing), Hesse Phillips (Lightborne), and Lauren Mackenzie (The Couples) all credit the competition with launching their careers. Details and entry via . Fee: €65 (€58.50 for members). Limited free entries available. * The Irish Times columnist, author and investigative journalist Kathy Sheridan will be in conversation with author and Sunday Independent columnist Máiría Cahill in the Bailey Allen Hall on Saturday, July 19th at noon as part of the Galway International Arts Festival. The event, Speaking Truth to Power, will cover several topics, including Cahill's book Rough Beast, which dealt with her sexual abuse by a republican, an IRA internal 'investigation' and her subsequent struggle for justice. Tickets are €10 and available from . * Echoes: the Maeve Binchy Literary Festival returns to Dalkey Castle and Heritage Centre from October 3rd-5th with an exciting line-up of events and speakers. On October 3rd, at 7.30pm, Binchy's award-winning play Deeply Regretted By ... directed by Conall Morrison will be performed. On October 4th from 9.30am to 5.30pm there will be an exciting day of conversations, interviews and readings featuring: Marian Keyes, Claire Keegan, Donal Ryan, Patricia Scanlan, Lisa Harding, Conall Morrison, Anne-Marie Casey, Gerard Stembridge, Sinead Moriarty, Roisin Ingle, Niall McMonagle, Oliver Callan, Anna Carey, Michael Harding, Catherine Dunne, Caroline Erskine, Ian Robertson, Sophie White, Andrew Meehan, Lise-Ann McLaughlin, Jessica Dromgoole, Sarah Binchy and Gordon Snell. On Sunday 5th at 11am, the Marvellously Maeve Guided Walk leaves from Dalkey Castle. At 3pm, there will also be a Rehearsed Reading of Tottenham Court Road, followed by a discussion with director Jim Culleton of Fishamble: The New Play Company and Gillian Binchy. Full programme and booking at . & Half & full day tickets available for Saturday. Booking fees apply * The Irish-American poet Fanny Howe has died in Boston, aged 84. She was the daughter of Dublin-born writer and director Mary Manning. Her daughter, the writer Danzy Senna, is married to fellow author Percival Everett. She was professor emerita of Writing and Literature at theUniversity of California, San Diego and lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ireland was very important to her. Last year, although very frail, she flew over to see her mother's play Youth's the Season staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. She had long-standing friendships with Mark Patrick Hederman at Glenstal and Richard Kearney at Boston College. * Galway-based author Maura McHugh, who writes prose, theatre, film/TV, video games, non-fiction and comic books, has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award in the category of Best Short Fiction, for her story Raptor, from the anthology Heartwood, edited by Dan Coxon, and published by PS Publishing in the UK. The anthology of twenty stories is a tribute to the innovative and lyrical Mythago Wood novels by award-winning author Robert Holdstock (1948 – 2009). 'I'm honoured to be one of five nominees from an international field by a jury of renowned writers and editors. My thanks to my editor and publisher for including me in this beautiful volume.' The World Fantasy Awards are one of most prestigious annual honours in fantasy literature and this year's winners will be announced in November at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, UK. * Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann and Ukrainian Action Ireland is hosting an event to celebrate Victoria Amelina (1986-2023) and her posthumously published Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary, which recently won the Orwell Prize for Political Writing. It will take place on Tuesday, July 29th at 6pm in Books Upstairs, 17 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2. Speakers will include Yaryna Grusha (Editor) and Pádraig Hanratty (Co-Chair, Irish PEN). Admission is free but booking is required. On Wednesday, July 30th, at 7pmthere will be another celebration of Amelina's life and work held as part of Irish PEN's Freedom to Write programme with the John Hewitt Summer School in the Market Place Theatre and Arts Centre, Armagh. * The 2025 Kennedy Summer School taking place in New Ross from August 28th-30th has unveiled its programme details. The festival spotlights Colm Tóibín, celebrated novelist, who is featured in The Noel Whelan Interview, bringing his sharp narrative sensibilities to a rich literary discussion. Alongside him are several distinguished journalists whose writing shaped the event. Seán O'Rourke, former RTÉ presenter and long‑form podcaster, is the guest at the Kennedy Tea Party. Also present are columnist Brenda Power, Cal Thomas, an American commentator, and Sarah Churchwell, historian and writer whose work bridges US and Irish cultural narratives. Tony Connelly and Jim Acosta, both veteran correspondents, lend their reporting expertise. The programme offers a compelling blend of literary and journalistic voices, all contributing to an engaging exploration of contemporary culture, politics, and storytelling. * Inspired by the curious interplay of Irish words when translated to English, Aileen Crossley (author / illustrator) reimagines a world where dogs live in trees, eat acorns instead of bones, and pigs roam the oceans. In her whimsical Irish language picture book, a foxglove fairy finds a young girl Mollaí, overwhelmed by technology, and takes her on a magical journey through the Irish countryside. An Áit a nEitlíonn na Madaí Crainn (Where the Tree Dogs Fly), a luxurious hard-backed book of fine art lithographic prints, will be launched at Hodges Figgis, Dawson St, Dulbin on Friday, July 18th, at 6pm. All are welcome. * The Linen Hall has announced the launch of the Michael McLaverty Short Story Award 2025. McLaverty (1904 – 1992) was one of the foremost proponents of the Irish short story. The purpose of the award is to foster and encourage the short story. First prize is £2,000; with £250 each for two runners-up. The winning story will be published with the runners-up in a limited anthology. Renowned writer Neil Hegarty (The Jewel; Inch Levels; The Story of Ireland) and editor Emma Warnock, of No Alibis Press, are the judges. Entry guidelines can be found on the website . * Philip Casey was one of Ireland's most loved writers, evidenced by these tribute s published in The Irish Times when he died in 2018. Last week, he would have turned 75. One of Philip's quiet but enduring passions was a website created and curated: – a lovingly compiled directory of more than 700 Irish writers. Although the original site is no longer live, you can still view an archived version on the Wayback Machine here . Recently, his family recovered a backup of the site and restored most of the content to an unpublished version. They would love to find someone in the Irish writing community who might be interested in taking up the mantle: to update, edit, and relaunch the site under a new domain they have secured: Technical support is available if needed, but what's most important is a passion for Irish writing and a commitment to preserving and expanding this valuable resource. If you or someone you know might be interested in continuing Philip's legacy, please feel free to get in touch with Éamonn McGuinness, Philip's cousin and close friend, at eamonnmcguinness@ * Leila Aboulela has been awarded the 2025 PEN Pinter Prize. Judges praised Aboulela for her 'nuanced and rich perspectives on themes that are vital in our contemporary world: faith, migration, and displacement', calling her writing 'a balm, a shelter, and an inspiration'. Aboulela is an award-winning novelist celebrated for her distinctive exploration of identity, migration and Islamic spirituality. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Aboulela's novels include Bird Summons, Minaret, The Translator and The Kindness of Enemies, which have been translated to over 15 languages. Aboulela's most recent works include the novella A New Year, selected as a World Book Night title in 2025, and River Spirit, shortlisted for the HWA Gold Crown Award. The PEN Pinter Prize is awarded annually to a writer resident in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Commonwealth or former Commonwealth who, in the words of Harold Pinter's Nobel speech, casts an 'unflinching, unswerving' gaze upon the world, and shows a 'fierce intellectual determination ... to define the real truth of our lives and our societies'. * There will be an audience with Priscilla Presley on October 1st at 7.30pm at the National Concert Hall. In this deeply personal conversation drawing from her forthcoming memoir Softly, As I Leave You, Presley will reflect on what it took to leave her husband Elvis, what she lost in the process, and what she ultimately found: strength, purpose, and a life beyond the legend. Tickets can be purchased here . Eason presents an evening with Sophie White at The Racketspace at The Bernard Shaw on August 26th at 8pm. Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen, co-authors of the Aisling series, will launch White's new novel, Such a Good Couple. Tickets are €20.99 and include a copy of the book, which you will receive at the venue on the night. * Iceapelago, the ice-covered islands that were once Ireland, is the creation of Peter Brennan who is the author of several reports on climate change. The Iceapelago books straddle the thin line between fact and fiction. Iceapelago 3, the final book in his climate fiction trilogy, is a parable, a war story and a deep reflection of the environmental collapse of a nation. As a temperate climate return, Iceapelago becomes the target of climate refugees seeking a new home. It is a thought-provoking story of hard truths, impossible choices, high stakes and moral dilemmas. This dystopian thriller ends with a twist that may give our planet some comfort.
The Hindu
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
In Chennai, this new book club meets to rant about fictional people
Just like there are many characters in a book, there are also many peculiar, interesting characters in a book club. At the second meeting of The Love Lit Society, held on a quiet Sunday morning at Vinyl and Brew, you could spot the annotator, the reluctant reader, the overthinker, and the hopeless romantic, all united more by emotion than by any particular book. The Love Lit Society is one of Chennai's newest book clubs, aimed at readers who are more interested in shared feelings than formal literary analysis. There was no collective reading, no heated discussion about plot structure or prose. Instead, there were themed games, introductions, and the beginnings of what might, over time, become a reading community. 'There are no restrictions,' says Radhika Nathany, founder of the club and a marketing professional. 'Even if you have only read ten books in your life, as long as you are open to trying something new and want to meet people, you are welcome.' The club operates through a WhatsApp group, where weekly registration links are shared. Members voted for the group's first read, Normal People by Sally Rooney, which will be discussed at the end of the month. 'We realised that weekly discussions might influence how others perceive the book while reading, so we decided to keep the in-depth conversation for the end,' she explains. Future plans include themed activities related to specific books, peer recommendations, and sessions where members bring a book to pitch to the group. A community has also been set up on Fable, a social platform for book lovers to discover, track, and discuss books. Although it does not yet follow the conventional book club format, the Love Lit Society is focused on building comfort before structure. 'Reading is something people often do alone. I wanted to create a space where people could talk about books without pressure,' says Radhika. Whether it eventually becomes a space for deeper literary discussion or remains rooted in casual community, only time will tell. The Love Lit Society meets at 11am every Sunday at Vinyl and Brew, TTK Road. Entry is ₹500, which includes a beverage. To register log on to @thelovelitsociety on Instagram.
