Irish Book Week

Out of Love

A Novel

By: Hazel Hayes
Narrated by: Hazel Hayes
Length: 10 hours 40 minutes

One of E! News' 13 Books to Read This September | One of Bookish's Debuts to Read in the Second Half of 2021 | One of Medium's Best Releases Out Today 

“Hazel Hayes writes with such honesty and casual confidence and flowing dialogue, you feel you are overhearing it rather than reading it. The writing sparkles with wit and a poignant emotional... Read more

All Down Darkness Wide

A Memoir

By: Seán Hewitt
Narrated by: Seán Hewitt
Length: 7 hours 40 minutes

“Hewitt writes about queerness, depression, poetry and spirituality in the most beautiful and captivating way. A sad read to be sure, but one that has affected me, and that I'll carry with me, better for having read it. It's been a long while since I've read something that made such an impact on me - one that's so difficult to put into words. Read more

The Ruin

The Cormac Reilly Series: Book #1

By: Dervla McTiernan
Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
Length: 10 hours 24 minutes

“In a thrilling debut police procedural, Dervla McTiernan's The Ruin introduces readers to honest and likeable Cormac Reilly, a 20 year veteran detective recently relocated to Galway, Ireland trying to figure out where he fits in at his new police station. Tasked with closing cold case files, Reilly's investigation of a case from his rookie days... Read more

Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating

By: Adiba Jaigirdar
Narrated by: Reena Dutt & Shubhangi Karmakar
Length: 9 hours 35 minutes

“All of Adiba Jaigirdar's books feel like being wrapped up in a soft blanket. I love how she embraces tropes but uses her queer and BIPOC identities to twist and reinvent them. While this is obviously a fake dating story, it's also opposites attract told in a way that challenges the stereotypes placed upon South Asian women. Hani and Ishu have... Read more

Trespasses

A Novel

By: Louise Kennedy
Narrated by: Bríd Brennan
Length: 8 hours 58 minutes

“Trespasses is set during the Troubles and explores the relationship of a Catholic woman and a Protestant man. Interesting concept as the bleakness of the subject is intertwined with daily life. The lore of the Irish is spellbinding. They know how to tell stories and are always page-turners. I love their gift of gab. Read more

The Queen of Dirt Island

A Novel

By: Donal Ryan
Narrated by: Emma Lowe
Length: 6 hours 44 minutes

“The lives of the Aylward women of Tipperary. A celebration of love and four generations. Superb writing, fast paced but scrumptious thoughts. I loved every very short chapter. Ah! those brooding Irishmen and their uplifting tales. Read more

After You’d Gone

By: Maggie O'Farrell
Narrated by: Elle Newlands
Length: 11 hours 58 minutes

Alice Raikes takes a train from London to Scotland to visit her family, but when she gets there she witnesses something so shocking that she insists on returning to London immediately. A few hours later, Alice is lying in a coma after an accident that may or may not have been a suicide attempt. Alice’s family gathers at her bedside and as they... Read more

Beautiful World, Where Are You

A Novel

By: Sally Rooney
Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
Length: 10 hours 3 minutes

“Another incredible story! The characters are vibrant and familiar, and the intimate moments are uniquely painted. It’s as if a close friend is confessing their life to you and you are seeing yourself in it. Read more

Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?

A Memoir

By: Séamas O'Reilly
Narrated by: Séamas O'Reilly
Length: 5 hours

“A candid look at the author's own upbringing as one of eleven children in an Irish Catholic family headed by a loving and eccentric father. Too young to process his mother's death, Séamas grows into an understanding of the situation and writes hilariously and lovingly of his siblings and father as they figure out how to muddle on, to great... Read more

Haven

By: Emma Donoghue
Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
Length: 8 hours 35 minutes

In this beautiful story of adventure and survival from the New York Times bestselling author of Room, three men vow to leave the world behind them as they set out in a small boat for an island their leader has seen in a dream, with only faith to guide them. In seventh-century Ireland, a scholar and priest called Artt has a dream telling him to... Read more

The Country Girls

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the landmark trilogy

By: Edna O'Brien
Narrated by: Jonathan Forbes, Charlie Murphy, Aoibhinn McGinnity, Shaun Mason & Full Cast
Length: 5 hours 39 minutes

All three BBC radio dramatisations of Edna O’Brien’s coming-of-age trilogy set in 1950s Ireland

Now a much-loved modern classic, The Country Girls Trilogy was fiercely controversial when first published in the 1960s. Banned by the Irish censors and burned by the Church, the books nonetheless achieved widespread acclaim and international success,... Read more

Actress

By: Anne Enright
Narrated by: Anne Enright
Length: 8 hours 4 minutes

“My usual policy (with a few notable exceptions) is that an audiobook is almost always better when read by the author, who brings, if nothing else, the emotional resonance of speaking words she has written. In no case so far has that paid off as grandly as with this book and this author, a born actress herself, not for her polish but for what... Read more

A Guest at the Feast

Essays

By: Colm Toibin
Narrated by: Colm Toibin
Length: 9 hours 35 minutes

“I invite you to join me as I - we - settle into big stuffy chairs, our glass of wine in hand, and listen to a man tell us stories about his past: childhood, life in Ireland, and on into adulthood. He will tell us about cancer, priests, literature, homosexuality, popes and Venice. He can do this because he is a man of rare observational skill,... Read more

Small Things Like These

By: Claire Keegan
Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
Length: 1 hour 56 minutes

“A small and beautiful book of an Irish man and his discovery of a disturbing secret in the convent - highly recommended! One of my Top 3 Books of 2021! Read more

Love

A Novel

By: Roddy Doyle
Narrated by: Morgan C. Jones
Length: 11 hours 7 minutes

Two old friends reconnect in Dublin for a dramatic, revealing evening of drinking and storytelling in this winning new novel from the author of the Booker Prize winning Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

One summer's evening, two men meet up in a Dublin restaurant.

Drinking pals back in their youth, now married and with grown up children, their lives have... Read more

Ulysses

By: James Joyce
Narrated by: Donal Donnelly & Miriam Healy-Louie
Length: 27 hours 15 minutes

The young poet Stephen has been recalled from Paris to Dublin to be at his mother's deathbed. But he refuses her dying wishes: to kneel and pray for her. Now, holed up in his Martello tower outside the city walls, he has to suffer the taunts of Buck Mulligan by day and, by night, the vision of 'her eyes, shaking out of death to shake and bend my... Read more

Normal People

A Novel

By: Sally Rooney
Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
Length: 7 hours 34 minutes

“What a treat to discover Sally Rooney! This novel stands out shining from the current onslaught of mediocre prose and less-than-suspenseful thriller plots. Normal People is the story of a relationship between two high school classmates in a small town in Ireland, and how it changes over time, through their last year of college in Dublin.... Read more

Old God's Time

By: Sebastian Barry
Narrated by: Stephen Hogan
Length: 8 hours 34 minutes

From the two-time Booker Prize finalist author, a dazzlingly written novel exploring memory, grief, and long-buried secretsRetired policeman Tom Kettle is enjoying the quiet of his new home, a lean-to annexed to a white Victorian Castle in Dalkey overlooking the sea. For months he has barely seen a soul, but his peace is interrupted when two... Read more

For Love or Money

By: Clodagh Murphy
Narrated by: Jenn McGuirk
Length: 9 hours 9 minutes

'Smart, heartwarming and downright hilarious' Joanna BolouriLesley has always fancied herself as an amateur sleuth, a sort of modern day Miss Marple without the support stockings.So when Al wants to hire her to investigate his elderly uncle’s young fiancée, she jumps at the chance. It doesn’t hurt that the job will involve posing as Al’s... Read more

Thin Places

A Natural History of Healing and Home

By: Kerri ní Dochartaigh
Narrated by: Kerri ní Dochartaigh
Length: 9 hours 55 minutes

Kerri ní Dochartaigh was born in Derry, on the border of the North and South of Ireland, at the very height of the Troubles. She was brought up on a council estate on the wrong side of town—although for her family, and many others, there was no right side. One parent was Catholic, the other was Protestant. In the space of one year, they were... Read more