Journalist Claire Coughlan has just published her first novel Where They Lie, and she lets us know what she’s reading now…
Claire Coughlan has worked as a journalist for the past 18 years, most recently writing for BookBrunch.co.uk and the Sunday Independent. Claire has an MFA in Creative Writing from UCD and has previously been the recipient of Arts Council funding, as well as a literature bursary from Dublin City Council. Her first novel, Where They Lie, is published by Simon & Schuster this month. She lives with her husband and daughter in Co Kildare.
“I’m revisiting Matilda by Roald Dahl at the moment. I loved this book as a child and now I’m reading it at bedtime to my daughter, who also adores it and likes listening to the audio on her Toniebox. As always with Dahl, the story manages to be simultaneously hilarious, touching, and dark as night. It’s difficult to reconcile the books that sparked the imaginations of millions of children with an author who was allegedly anti-semitic, for which the Dahl family posthumously apologised in 2020. Should we separate the flawed author from their work? Is it ok to love the art, but not the artist? I’ve just started a thought-provoking book, Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma in which US journalist and memoirist Claire Dederer explores these very questions in relation to the lives of artists, from Picasso to Michael Jackson.
For pure escapism, I’m really into “destination” thrillers at the moment – i.e. crime novels set in far-flung locations. Often whodunnits with a small cast of characters, they are “locked-room mysteries” in the vein of Agatha Christie’s iconic And Then There Were None, about ten people trapped in a mansion on a remote island, who are bumped off one by one, or Murder on the Orient Express, where a man is murdered in his sleeper carriage overnight. I’ve just finished The Island, by Catherine Cooper. A bunch of journalists and influencers are invited on a press trip to a luxurious resort in the Maldives, only to find there is a killer among them who is out for revenge. This is one of the best examples of the genre that I’ve read: great fun, with sharp writing.”
Where They Lie, Simon & Schuster, £16.99, www.simonandschuster.co.uk
