The Art of Reading is a monthly book club hosted by Colm Tóibín, the Laureate for Irish Fiction.
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 celebrate new work by contemporary Irish writers and the latest episode features Colm in conversation with Joseph O’Connor about his latest novel, My Father’s House - watch above.
My Father’s House is set in Nazi-occupied Rome in the middle of the Second World War. Describing the novel, the Financial Times writes that "The diverse ventriloquism of O’Connor’s novel evokes a city in peril with wonderful vitality."
Joseph O’Connor’s fiction is published in 40 languages. Star of the Sea has sold more than a million copies. Shadowplay won the An Post Irish Novel of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Costa. Other books include Cowboys and Indians (Whitbread Prize shortlist), Desperadoes, The Salesman, Inishowen, Redemption Falls, Ghost Light (Dublin One City One Book 2011), The Thrill of it All, two short story collections, several stage plays and film scripts and six non-fiction volumes
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.
