Irish Fiction Reading Group: Contemporary and Classic

Fáilte romhat! Our next reading group will be Irish Fiction: Contemporary and Classic Writing. We’ll be immersing ourselves in a range of Irish writing, expanding the breadth of reading to encompass contemporary and classic Irish fiction. We’ll be looking at the two books listed below, one a novel and the other a short story collection, and considering how each book fits with - or doesn’t fit with - our preconceptions of Irish writing.

15th April: A Line Made by Walking by Sara Baume

20th May: The Springs of Affection by Maeve Brennan

There’s no need to prepare: just bring your lovely self!

For our fifth book group, we will be reading the short story collection The Springs of Affection by Maeve Brennan.

In the stories that compose this collection, Maeve Brennan turns her anatomist's eye to the ugly feelings that teem just beneath the surface of family life - doing so, however, with an attention to detail that makes these unsparing portraits luminous and exquisite. Brennan's subjects are ordinary people worn down by life, by its disappointments, its little humiliations. Yet they are also dreamers, defiantly hopeful of one day overstepping the narrow confines of the situations in which, unaccountably, they find themselves.

Each entry place costs £5, fully redeemable as a voucher towards a copy of the book. We hope you’ll join us for some great conversation, and a glass of wine or a tea.