In The Irish Times this Saturday, Austin Duffy tells John Self about his Troubles novel Cross and combining careers as a doctor and a writer. I ask authors and critics to pick their favourite books of the year so far. Poet Victoria Kennefick writes about the end of her marriage, which informs her new collection egg / shell, after her former spouse, the person she considered to be her husband, came out as a trans woman. And there is a Q&A with John MacKenna, about his new memoir and his long and varied career.
Reviews are Paschal Donohoe on The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison & The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society by Joseph Stiglitz; Tony Clayton-Lea on the best new music books; Claire Hennessy on the hottest new YA fiction; Mei Chin on Tiananmen Square by Lai Wen; Niamh Jiménez on Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness; Amanda Bell on Cairn by Kathleen Jamie; Mark Hennessy on Finding Margaret: Solving the Mystery of my Birth Mother by Andrew Pierce; Val Nolan on Garth Risk Hallberg’s The Second Coming; Ruth McKee on A Good Enough Mother by Catherine Dunne; Kevin Gildea on The Material by Camille Bordas; and Sarah Gilmartin on Test Kitchen by Neil Stewart.
This weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer is The Polite Act of Drowning by Charleen Hurtubise, just €5.99, a €5 saving.
Una Mannion has won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger, awarded for the best crime novel of the year, for her second novel, Tell Me What I Am. The Irish-American author, who has lived in Sligo for many years, where she teaches at IT Sligo, won the Emerging Poetry prize at the 2017 Hennessy New Irish Writing Awards. Her debut novel, A Crooked Tree, was nominated for best newcomer at the Irish Book Awards and the Dalkey Prize and won the Kate O’Brien Prize.
Mannion beat stalwarts of the genre shortlisted for Gold, including Dennis Lehane and Mick Herron. Past winners include Ian Rankin, John le Carré, Reginald Hill and Ruth Rendell.
The judging panel praised it for being “haunting and beautifully written”, saying the character-driven thriller “expertly examines the boundaries of love, power and control and will stay with you long after you turn the last page”.
The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, for thriller of the year, went to Jordan Harper, with his second thriller, Everybody Knows. Judges said Harper’s novel was “brilliantly constructed and fast-paced”, taking readers into the “heart of the darkness of Hollywood, guided by a sensationally atypical protagonist”.
The John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, which highlights the best debut novels, went to Jo Callaghan for her BBC Between the Covers Book Club pick, In the Blink of an Eye, praised for being “fresh, original and gripping.” The Historical Dagger went to Jake Lamar for Viper’s Dream, a daring look at the jazz-scene of mid-century Harlem and the dangerous underbelly of its drug trade. The ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction was awarded to Nicholas Shakespeare’s Ian Fleming: The Complete Man, praised as a “panoramic biography of the creator of the most charismatic 20th century hero”.
The Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger was awarded to Maud Ventura’s My Husband, translated by Emma Ramadan, which was a sensation in France, likened to Patricia Highsmith and Gone Girl. Judges praised its “sharp twist in the tail”.
The Dagger in the Library nominees, chosen by librarians and library users for the author’s body of work and support of libraries, and was awarded to Anthony Horowitz. The CWA judging panel said: “Renowned for Foyle’s War and Midsomer Murders on the screen, Anthony’s books are triumphs too; the Alex Rider series, his James Bond, and his Sherlock Holmes novels. Now the author has surpassed himself with stand-alone mysteries and the endearing, inventive Hawthorne, and Horowitz series.”
*
The 37th John Hewitt International Summer School returns from July 22nd-26th, drawing its usual heady mix of poets, prosers, performers and thinkers to historic Armagh for a week in celebration of the written and spoken word.
The opening talk is delivered by Audrey Osler, Professor Emerita of Citizenship and Human Rights Education at the University of Leeds. Other speakers include Prof Elaine Farrell, Prof Leanne McCormick, Sorcha Pollak and Prof Mary M Burke.
The event celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of John Hewitt’s Rhyming Weavers, including the launch of a new edition of the collection.
Armagh writer Stuart Neville presents the Crime Fiction Special with Chris Brookmyre and Liz Nugent. Other authors include Kit de Waal in conversation with Paul McVeigh, Ingrid Persaud in conversation with Raquel McKee, Elaine Feeney in conversation with James Conor Patterson. Jan Carson will host a conversation with Kevin Barry, plus debut novelists Aimée Walsh and Orla Mackey. Poets include Theo Dorgan, Rachael Allen, Susannah Dickey, Adam Lowe, Mícheál McCann, Nithy Kasa and Martina Evans.
Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireannChair present Ukrainian writer Anna Romandash, on War, Identity, and the Process of Reconciliation. Composer Gareth Williams has a homecoming with Songs from the LAST Page ... Johnhewittsociety.org
*
Two Irish authors have made the 2024 TikTok Book Awards shortlist. Claire Wright has been nominated for BookTok Breakthrough Author and The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue for Book of the Year.
*
Hisham Matar has won the Orwell Prize for political fiction for his novel My Friends (Viking). The Orwell Prize for non-fiction political writing went to Matthew Longo for The Picnic: An Escape to Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain (Bodley Head). The winners were announced at Conway Hall in London with both authors awarded £3,000.
