Caitriona Lally on Eggshells: The Irish Times Book Club podcast

The Irish Times Book Club’s in-depth look at Caitriona Lally’s Eggshells reaches its climax with a podcast in which the author reads a passage from her debut novel and discusses her work with Martin Doyle, assistant literary editor of The Irish Times; Mary O’Brien, who has compiled the Simplex crosswords for The Irish Times for almost 30 years; and her former flatmate, Dr Madeleine Lyes, from the Clinton Institute in UCD.

Lally was a winner of the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair and was recently shortlisted for the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards.

Eggshells is the story of Vivian, an endearing but eccentric Dubliner who roams her city, looking for a portal to another world, but in the meantime she observes the world she is stuck in and its citizens in great detail.

The author talks about her unique slant on Dublin, how her novel came about, how she went from studying at Trinity College Dublin to working there as a cleaner, and her next novel, which is set in Hamburg.

Eggshells is published by Liberties Press. The next Irish Times Book Club choice will be announced on Monday