And so my selection of books echoes Ireland’s literary journey from pre-Famine to the present day. At the start of the novel Dualta Duane’s life changes for the worse after a chance encounter with the son of a landowner. The Belfast setting for this novel, published in 1996, straddles the months before and after the 1994 IRA ceasefire. They are just two of 21 desolate voices marooned by circumstance in his novel, published in 2012. The book’s small-screen production dominated ratings and press coverage throughout the Covid-19 lockdown, as did Connell’s short shorts, necklace and prolonged nudity.

Source: The Irish Times July 02, 2020 04:41 UTC