The Art of Reading is a monthly book club hosted by Colm Tóibín, the Laureate for Irish Fiction.
Every 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 Aingeala Flannery about her debut novel, The Amusements - watch above.
Flannery’s first collection of linked stories is set in the seaside town of Tramore. ‘The people in this book are not real but the town of Tramore is,’ Flannery has written. ‘It took up residence in my imagination when I was a child and has refused to leave.’ RTÉ wrote that The Amusements "weaves a gorgeous, empathetic story of a teenager yearning for freedom."
About The Author: Aingeala Flannery is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and writer. Her short story Visiting Hours won the 2019 Harper’s Bazaar short story competition, and she has twice been a finalist in the RTÉ short story competition, first in 2018, and again in 2022 for her story Scrappage. Aingeala was awarded a Literature Bursary by the Arts Council in 2020 and 2021. Her debut novel The Amusements was shortlisted for The Irish Book Awards, and won the John McGahern Prize and the Kerry Group Irish Novel Of The Year prize.
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.
