Books from Ireland

Ireland, 1865. On a windswept peninsula overlooking the Atlantic, Tomás and his ten-year-old son, Liam, work on the ambitious Ordnance Survey project to map the entire country. Still haunted by the devastating Great Hunger, Tomás is determined that his maps will preserve a record of the tragedy that transformed Ireland. But when an unsettling encounter in an ancient woodland disrupts his work and changes his behaviour, Liam finds himself struggling to understand his father while facing the daunting task of completing their mission. As their family’s story unfolds, buried secrets, lingering ghosts, and the enduring power of the Irish landscape reveal how the past continues to shape the present. Spanning generations and exploring the consequences of colonisation, famine, and displacement, Land is a sweeping historical novel about survival, family, and the profound connections between people and the places they call home. Maggie O’Farrell weaves Irish history with folklore and intimate human drama, creating a meditation on memory, belonging, and the ways landscapes preserve stories that history cannot erase.

Spanning seven decades of Irish history, The Heart’s Invisible Furies follows Cyril Avery, a boy born in 1940s Ireland to an unmarried teenage mother who is publicly shamed by her community and forced to leave her home. Adopted by a wealthy couple in Dublin, Cyril grows up in a household where he is constantly reminded that he is not their biological son. Feeling like an outsider, he embarks on a lifelong search for love, acceptance, and a place where he truly belongs. As Cyril moves through adulthood, his experiences unfold against the backdrop of a changing Ireland. Growing up in a deeply conservative Catholic society, he struggles to understand and accept his sexuality in a country where homosexuality is criminalised and social prejudice shapes countless lives. His journey takes him beyond Ireland, through relationships, personal losses, and difficult discoveries, before eventually bringing him back to his homeland. Combining dark humour with moments of profound tenderness, Boyne explores the consequences of religious intolerance, social exclusion, and the silence surrounding sexuality. Through Cyril’s personal experiences, the novel also traces Ireland’s transformation from a society dominated by the Catholic Church to one increasingly willing to confront its past. Ultimately, it is a story about identity, belonging, friendship, and the possibility of finding love and reconciliation after a lifetime of struggle.