Kathy Hamilton Ireland is full of stories. It is a place full of myths and legends, both ancient and modern. Naturally, that can make narrowing down the best books set in Ireland quite hard! But no fear! Whilst the cannon of Irish Literature is vast, this list will provide you a great starting point to explore everything the Emerald Isle has to offer.
I was recently the wedding of a good friend in Tipperary. And in the speeches someone said, “The best thing about the Irish is that they never let the truth get in the way of a good story!” As a nation of story tellers, I can think of nothing that sums up the Irish approach to writing than this.
Creativity abounds, and there seems to be a story waiting around every corner. Just get talking to any Irish person and I’m sure you’ll discover the natural skill they possess. To weave yarns out of the smallest thing. It’s no surprise, then, that this small country has produced so many authors, poets and writers.
So, get ready for a return of the most popular series on The Female Scriblerian! You love my posts of books set in The French Riviera, Iceland and so many other locations.
Irish Authors Writing about Ireland
Ireland has produced a wealth of authors. However, when thinking about “the best books set in Ireland” I realised it was important to offer you books by Irish Authors which are set in Ireland.
Was it hard to narrow this list down to 10? YES! Inevitably, some huge books have not made the cut. But think of this as a starting point to your own journey of discovery of Irish Fiction. I would love to know about which Irish authors, you think deserve a place on this list, so let me know!
10 Best Books Set In Ireland
Normal People by Sally Rooney
“Marianne is the young, affluent, intellectual wallflower; Connell is the boy everyone likes, shadowed by his family’s reputation and poverty. Unlikely friends, and later lovers, their small town beginnings in rural Ireland are swiftly eclipsed by the heady worlds of student Dublin. Gradually their intense, mismatched love becomes a battleground of power, class, and the falsehoods they choose to believe.”
Why You Should Read It:
Normal People by Sally Rooney is a million copy bestseller and possibly the most famous Irish book in recent times. Famously adapted into a series, this book is simply written yet deceptively profound. Beyond the immense hype this book has received it’s a great example of what modern Irish authors are trying to do with fiction. A simple yet aching narrative that will keep you thinking about it long after the final page is reached.
The Sea by John Banville
“When art historian Max Morden returns to the seaside village where he once spent a childhood holiday, he is both escaping from a recent loss and confronting a distant trauma. The Grace family had appeared that long-ago summer as if from another world. Mr and Mrs Grace, with their worldly ease and candour, were unlike any adults he had met before. But it was his contemporaries, the Grace twins Myles and Chloe, who most fascinated Max. He grew to know them intricately, even intimately, and what ensued would haunt him for the rest of his years and shape everything that was to follow.”
Why You Should Read It
This Booker Prize winning novel is a perfect example of Irish Fiction. Irish authors have a knack at writing novels that showcase humanity in all its layers. In The Sea, John Banville introduces us to the complicated character of Max who is returning to Ireland as a method of stifling his emotions. The atmosphere is taught. And as the novel muses on the nature of memory and what it means to remember there is a sense that what is acknowledged is somehow less important than what is left unsaid.
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
“In 1920, at their country home in County Cork, Sir Richard Naylor and his wife, Lady Myra, and their friends maintain a sceptical attitude toward the events going on around them, but behind the façade of tennis parties and army camp dances, all know that the end is approaching—the end of British rule in the south of Ireland and the demise of a way of life that had survived for centuries. Their niece, Lois Farquar, attempts to live her own life and gain her own freedoms from the very class that her elders are vainly defending.”
Why You Should Read It
A rare glimpse into and Ireland that is slowly fading from memory. The Last September captures the lives of the Anglo-Irish, a group of people who find their allegiances torn between the Ireland and Britain as the war of independence breaks out. But more than being a ‘history book’, The Last September’ considers the tensions between love and the longing for freedom and the terrifying choice between the comfort of tradition and the prospect of independence. Elizabeth Bowen’s skill lies in her ability to present the story through dispassionate eyes, allowing readers to make up their own minds about her characters and the causes they choose to fight for.
Death of A Naturalist by Seamus Heaney
“I rhyme, To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.”
Seamus Heaney, Death of a Naturalist
“Death of a Naturalist marks the auspicious outset of an acclaimed master of poetry. As a first book of poems, it is remarkable for its accurate perceptions and its rich linguistic gifts. Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet, from County Derry, Ireland. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, “for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.”
Why You Should Read It
No list of best books set in Ireland would be complete without at least one volume of poetry. The Irish have mastered the art form like no other. And Seamus Heaney is a brilliant example of a poet who bridges the gap between lyrical beauty and gritty realism. This volume contains some of his best known poems, including “Digging”, the acclaimed “Death of a Naturalist” , and “Mid-Term Break”.
Milkman by Anna Burns
“In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes ‘interesting’. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and to be noticed is dangerous.”
Why You Should Read It
In Milkman by Anna Burns readers are taken on a journey back in time to The Troubles. The conflict that raged in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Here we meet Middle sister. A girl from a part of town where it’s better to keep your head down than to stand out. Either to the military men hiding in bushes with guns and surveillance cameras or locals who want to keep their stranglehold of power firmly in place.
Milkman captures a life shaped by conflict, there’s our shops and their shops. Films you can watch, and films you can’t (James Bond is out!). And opinions you can have and those you can’t. Us and Them; the story of a paranoid community under duress. Told in vernacular, stream of consciousness prose, this might be a bit of a marmite book. But in my opinion, no list of best books set in Ireland would be complete without it.
Poems by W. B. Yeats
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams …
W.B. Yeats
“In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an accessible and passionate introduction to some of the greatest poets in our literature.“
Why You Should Read This Book
Some of the most famous lines of Irish Poetry were written by William Butler Yeats. He was instrumental in giving a voice to the new Ireland that emerged after the Irish War of Independence. Whether through his role as senator, poet, dramatist or patriot. So it would be impossible to curate a list of best books set in Ireland without mentioning him. However, with poetry it can sometimes be tricky to narrow down which edition to chose. I like this version because Seamus Heaney arranged it and offers you a framework to explore the work of W.B. Yeats. I like comparing my own thoughts and feelings to another person without having to search online for feedback.
The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
“The Irish Midlands, 1859. An English nurse, Lib Wright, is summoned to a tiny village to observe what some are claiming as a medical anomaly or a miracle – a girl said to have survived without food for months. Tourists have flocked to the cabin of eleven-year-old Anna O’Donnell, and a journalist has come down to cover the sensation.“
Why You Should Read It
Miracle, Fraud or Anomaly? Welcome to rural Ireland in 1859. A country half guided by folkloric superstition and half gripped by religious zeal. In this community, miracles feel possible even if they are unsettling. In The Wonder by Emma Donoghue readers are invited to consider not so much what is happening but why. Why would a young girl, Anna, take to her bed claiming not to have eaten in months? Why would a community chose to encourage this behaviour? This a tightly written book, with a plot that leans towards psychological melodrama. Like her previous novel “Room”, Donoghue capitalises on creating a world within a confined space. But this is also a book with wider context: English and Irish antagonism, the clash between science and faith, and a nation moving towards modernity with one foot strongly held in in the past.
Holding by Graham Norton
The remote Irish village of Duneen has known little drama, and yet its inhabitants are troubled: Sergeant P.J. Collins hasn’t always been this overweight; Brid Riordan, a mother of two, hasn’t always been an alcoholic; and elegant Evelyn Ross hasn’t always felt that her life was a total waste.
So when human remains—suspected to be those of Tommy Burke, a former lover of both Brid and Evelyn—are discovered on an old farm, the village’s dark past begins to unravel. As a frustrated P.J. struggles to solve a genuine case for the first time in his professional life, he unearths a community’s worth of anger and resentments, secrets and regrets.
Why You Should Read It
Graham Norton is a comedian turned author. However, in Holding he creates a darkly comic novel about the binds that tie you in a small community. This book, which was recently adapted into a TV Drama, delves into the secrets hidden beneath the surface of a seemingly peaceful community. I loved the way Norton built flawed characters that you still find yourself rooting for. This novel is page turning and full of twists but ultimately leaves you wanting more!
Brooklyn by Colm Tobin
“It is Ireland in the early 1950s and for Eilis Lacey, as for so many young Irish girls, opportunities are scarce. So when her sister arranges for her to emigrate to New York, Eilis knows she must go, leaving behind her family and her home for the first time.
Arriving in a crowded lodging house in Brooklyn, Eilis can only be reminded of what she has sacrificed. She is far from home – and homesick. And just as she takes tentative steps towards friendship, and perhaps something more, Eilis receives news which sends her back to Ireland. There she will be confronted by a terrible dilemma – a devastating choice between duty and one great love.”
Why You Should Read It
Ulysses by James Joyce
“In a series of episodes covering the course of a single day, 16 June 1904, the novel traces the movements of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus through the streets of Dublin. Each episode has its own literary style, and the epic journey of Odysseus is only one of many layers that add meaning to the text. Ulysses has been the subject of controversy since copies of the first English edition were burned by the New York Post Office Authorities.”
Why You Should Read It
You didn’t think I would write an article about the best books set in Ireland and not mention Ulysses did you? Perhaps the most famous book that no one has read. Celebrating a century of baffling readers this year (it was published in 1922) . Ulysses is a book whose reputation precedes it. So, is it worth reading? I say, yes! Occasionally in life, it’s good to test yourself and expand your boundaries. Ulysses by James Joyce rewards your effort by showing you the beauty and complexity of language. Joyce pushed boundaries when he wrote this book and in doing so created a modern masterpiece.
Can’t Get Enough Books Set in Ireland?
Not enough books here to satisfy your passion for Irish literature? Best loved authors missing from this list? One of the best parts of curating articles like this is discovering just how much literature there is still out there to discover. This list is a nice place to start if you want to add more Irish Fiction to your reading list.
