A frequent patron of the bookstore came in the other day and I told him about a book I liked. "Oh, God," he said. "Is this one of your Northern Ireland books?" Well, yes, it was. (He bought it.) 'Tis true. I have been on an Irish reading kick and that is the main reason 2022 has been such an exhilarating year of reading.
I am going to cheat (is it cheating if you admit it from the get go? I think not) and recommend three books under the rubric of Irish literature. The first book is The Cold Cold Ground, book one in the six-book (so far) Sean Duffy series by Adrian McKinty. The series is about a Catholic Royal Ulster Constabulary cop. These are police procedurals but oh, so much more. The backdrop of the Troubles is menacing and ever present. (These are not, it should be said, cozy mysteries.) The books are funny, smart, full of unpretentious literary and musical allusions, addictive, and immersive. By book six you'll want to invite Sean over for breakfast. You might want to have some gin handy...
Trespasses, by Louise Kennedy, is one of the best novels of the year. Also set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, it's about a star-crossed affair that a young Catholic school teacher has with an older Protestant barrister she meets in her brother's bar. This exquisite novel is beautifully written and quite moving.
Finally: We Don't Know Ourselves, by Fintan O'Toole. Chosen as one of the best of the year by the New York Times, this memoir/history deserves any and all accolades. It's a honker for sure, more than 600 pages, but so worth the time. O'Toole has written a compelling history of Ireland from 1958 to the present, seen through the prism of his personal life. You will learn more about Ireland than you perhaps want to. Clear-eyed and impressively researched and detailed, We Don't Know Ourselves is remarkable. I have never read anything like it.
There are so many good Irish writers out now with books (see last week's Enthusiasm re Claire Keegan) it was hard, frankly, to pick only three. Any reader who wants more, just ask....
Carin Pratt is one of the remarkably knowledgeable crew at the Norwich Bookstore—and an ardent recommender of books. Before she landed in these parts, she spent 27 years at CBS News, including two decades as the executive producer of Face the Nation.