Debut Roundup for Books Ireland. September and October, 2017
Sally Rooney. Conversations Between Friends. Faber and Faber. I’d heard hype about Sally Rooney long before I saw her debut, so it came with a weight of expectation. Often such advance praise does a writer a…
Karen M. McManus
Karen started writing books at 7, but by 18, as the plots got complicated, she couldn’t finish anything, and gave up. She worked in Washington DC, for a political consulting firm. After three years, married, she…
Min Kym
Min left Korea for London aged 3. Soon, she had lessons in the violin, and by seven she was a prodigy. She won her first international competition aged 11. “I felt comfortable performing the violin; it…
K.J. Howe
A Canadian, Kimberley’s family moved around the world while she was growing up – to Africa, the Middle East, Puerto Rico and Europe. “I started reading at two, but didn’t write until my late twenties. When…
Elizabeth Day
Three years ago, Elizabeth Day was writing a novel based on her experience of growing up, as an English girl, in 1990’s Northern Ireland. She’d got 40,000 words in, but it wasn’t working out. “It was…
Sarah Carroll
Although Sarah loved reading as a child, she didn’t think of writing until she was in her thirties. “I’m very scientific. English was my most feared subject in school.” She worked in geophysics for a year,…
Sarah Franklin
Before attending university, Sarah spent a year in Austria working as an au pair. Gaining her degree at 23, she worked in London for a high-school exchange programme, but at 29, she switched to publishing. “I…
Min Jin Lee
It’s a gloriously sunny May day when I meet Min Jin Lee, and her radiant smile reflects the weather. She’s gorgeous – full of warmth and good humour – and she raves about Dublin, considering it…
Arundhati Roy
THERE are writers who plan their novels down to a tee; who believe they are God, deciding exactly how their characters will act; there are those whose plans are looser — and who declare constant surprise…
Donnacha Clifford
Donnacha has always had two passions in life; cycling and reading. “As a child I’d read everything,” he says. “I’d get lost in the adventures of Enid Blyton. I’ve always journaled too – and scribbled things…
Tim Winton
When Tim Winton was thirteen years old, he’d stand at the window with a rifle and aim it at people. The family had just moved. Unsettled and lonely, Tim was nervous at the thought of starting…
Orlagh Collins
After college in Dublin, Orlagh worked in the production department for various films, then she left for London and worked in the city in IT recruitment. “I stayed there for 18 months to earn some money,…