The Art of Reading is a monthly book club hosted by Colm Tóibín, the Laureate for Irish Fiction.
This episode features Colm in conversation with writer Sinéad Gleeson and writer and granddaughter of Mary Lavin, Alice Ryan, about the short story In the Middle of the Fields by Mary Lavin, from her short story collection of the same name - watch their conversation above.
Each month, the Laureate meets a different library book club to discuss a book by an Irish writer, highlighting outstanding Irish writing and celebrating the reader and book clubs.
The selected titles include new work by contemporary Irish writers as well as work from the past that the Laureate wishes to bring to a new generation of readers.
Of In the Middle of the Fields, Colm said: "These stories are written with a spareness, a wryness, that manage to make the source of their immense power ambiguous and mysterious. In the title story, it is unclear what the dominant emotion is, whether it is grief or shock or fear or resignation. That way of writing at an angle to easy assumptions, easy interpretations, makes Mary Lavin’s stories luminous and memorable."
The Art of Reading Book Club is an initiative of the Arts Council and the Laureate for Irish Fiction, in partnership with Libraries Ireland. Find out more here.
