The winner of the Liveline Irish Book of the Year 2016, as voted for by Liveline listeners, is Talking to Strangers by Michael Harding. Kieran Donaghy's sporting memoir What Do You Think Of That came in at number two, with crime author Liz Nugent's Lying In Wait in third place.
Listen back to Liveline's Irish Book of the Year special here.
‘It’s never a good idea to book a flight online after you’ve been drinking wine.’
That’s what led Michael Harding to a strange flat in Bucharest in January 2015. It was the moment that set the tone for the rest of that year. After a stint in the Gaiety Theatre production of The Field, Harding returned to the tranquil hills above Lough Allen and began to imagine what his little cottage might look like if he got a few builders to tear a hole in the wall and add on another room. Surely an extension would give him a renewed sense of purpose in life, as he approached old age. But as the walls of his home crumbled, so too did his mental health, and he fell once again, into depression – that great darkness where life feels like nothing more than a waste of time. And yet, it is in that great darkness that we discover what really makes us human.
Also nominated for a Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award, Talking to Strangers is a book about growing old, about the stories we share with others, and the stories we leave behind us.
