Revisiting old favourites …
The bestselling Irish novelist has written ten novels, including Saving Grace, Lifesaving for Beginners and Queen Bee. Her first children’s book, Wanda Broom (Eriu) was published in May.
“I’m currently reading The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin. First published in 1974, this science fiction novel tells the story of Shevek, a brilliant young physicist who is also that impossible thing: the man from the moon. This moon is an anarchist society where everything is shared, including his mother whom he refers to as ‘the mother’. Shevek travels to Urras, his first experience of a capitalist patriarchy. The book may be old but its themes and ideas still resonate – feminism, gender, morality, time and the purpose of living. Fascinating.
“I’ve been reading a lot of short stories lately because I’m writing a series of inter-connected ones for a book I’m working on, The Relief Road. The collection I come back to when I’m in need of inspiration or stimulation or just a good old-fashioned belly laugh is Kevin Barry’s There are Little Kingdoms. My favourite story in the collection is “Breakfast Wine”, which informs us at the outset that it takes three alcoholics to keep a small bar going in a country town. The narrator and his cousin are doing what they can but they’re a man shy. Enter a woman, on the run from her husband, with promises of glamour, excitement and salvation. A gem.
“I am re-reading Anne of Green Gables for the podcast I co-host with Caroline Grace Cassidy, Bookbirds. The premise is simple; we re-read novels we adored and see how they – and we – have changed in the intervening years. This 117-year-old novel is probably one of the main reasons I became a writer. I loved Anne like she was a real, live girl – a kindred spirit if you will – and a heroine with the same carroty red hair as me! When Matthew died, I felt his loss like it was mine. It was the first time I cried reading a book. I realised then the power of words on a page and even though I wouldn’t start writing until I was 34, a seed was planted in my twelve-year-old brain that day.” @ciara.geraghty.books
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