November Reading

I began the month with Aleksander Hemon’s THE LAZARUS PROJECT, a thought-provoking novel which blends various types of storytelling methods with photography and memory to create a book which is akin to being drawn into a dreamworld. It reminded me in ways of the great WG Sebald’s books. I found myself intrigued and moved by the story and fascinated by what was coming next on every page. It’s quite an achievement.

Next up was a beautiful small book, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, by F Scott Fitzgerald, which I read in anticipation of the David Fincher film that will be landing here shortly. It’s been a few years since I read any Fitzgerald – I used to be a bit obsessed with him at one point in my life. Very much looking forward to the movie.

After this came Justin Evans’ A GOOD AND HAPPY CHILD, which was not really for me, and Neil Gaiman’s THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, which I reviewed on RTE Television’s The View.

Joseph Smith’s debut novel THE WOLF is an astonishing novel, told from the point of view of a wolf who is searching for food during the winter and who spares a fox in the hope that he might lead him to a better dinner. Gripping and beautifully written, this is a short, spare piece of prose which should garner a lot of attention. Another debut followed, Sadie Jones’ THE OUTCAST, which is impressive. The story of a damaged young man and his relationship with his family and neighbours, it’s quite a sad story, reminiscent (I thought) of Ian McEwan’s Atonement, and suggests an interesting literary career in the future.

It’s a literary career which is the subject of Meg Wolitzer’s THE WIFE, a novel set during a husband and wife’s trip to Helsinki, him to receive a lifetime literary award, she to accompany him. It’s quite amusing at times – he’s a self centred egotist, she never stood up for herself – and has some neat twists but the ageing male writers who are criticised throughout the novel are not perhaps guilty of all that Wolitzer claims. Their work does stand the test of time, while this novel is a little more slight.

Book of the Month: Joseph Smith’s THE WOLF

Amnesty Writers Readings

Throughout 2008 – the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights – a series of 30 stories and essays ran in the Irish Times, each one written by a prominent Irish writer, and each one acting as a response to one of the articles.

To mark the publication of the collection, Amnesty Ireland and The Irish Times, in association with Trinity College Dublin have announced a series of readings and discussions in the company of these writers.

The readings will take place in the Edmund Burke Theatre, Trinity College Dublin, from 7-9 pm over four nights from Sunday 7th December – Wednesday 10th December. Admission is free but booking is essential. Tickets are available from all ticketmaster outlets or on-line at Ticketmaster. A booking fee of € 2.50 applies.

The full line-up:

Sunday 7th December: Eugene McCabe, Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, Colum McCann, Lia Mills, Kevin Barry, Dermot Healy, Roddy Doyle

Monday 8th December: Colm Toibin, Ann Marie Hourihane, Eoin Colfer, Glenn Patterson, John Connolly, Anne Enright

Tuesday 9th December: Joe O’Connor, John Boyne, Claire Kilroy, Carlo Gebler, Gerard Stembridge, Dermot Bolger, Mark O’Halloran

Wednesday 10th December: Frank McCourt, Eilis NiDhuibhne, Lara Marlowe, Gary Mitchell, Neil Jordan, Jennifer Johnston, Seamus Heaney

The View

I appeared on RTE Television’s THE VIEW on Tuesday night, a late night arts programme, discussing among other things Neil Gaiman’s new novel, the Fenton Art Gallery book, and the Sony E-Book Reader, as well as naming my two book recommendations for Christmas presents – Philip Hensher’s THE NORTHERN CLEMENCY and Barry McCrea’s THE FIRST VERSE. If you have about 30 minutes to spare you can watch the entire show online here, or watch it in pieces: Neil Gaiman section, Fenton Gallery section, E-Book Reader section, and Books of the Year section.

Dutch Bounty

The Dutch language edition of MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, titled DE SCHEEPSJONGEN, has just been published by Arena.

Arena also publish DIEF VAN DE TIJD (THE THIEF OF TIME) and DE JONGEN IN DE GESTREEPTE PYJAMA (THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS).

US Box Office

This weekend, the film adaptation of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS has moved into the Top 10 at the US Box Office in its third weekend of release.

Combined with the fact that the book is at #1 in the New York Times Bestseller list it’s been a good weekend all round Stateside!

Film times for the next week in the States are all available on Fandango.

New York Times #1

This weekend, THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS has hit #1 on the New York Times Bestsellers Chart. When the hardback was published in 2006 it reached no.4 so it’s great to finally have a #1 over there! The book is also currently #1 in Ireland, Spain and the UK.

The film adaptation has gone wide in the States this weekend too, showing on over 400 screens, so if you’re in America check out the listings close to you at Fandango.

Hourglass Readings

I’ll be giving a public interview and reading from several different works on Tuesday night (the 18th) at the Irish Writers’ Centre, Parnell Square, Dublin from 7 pm. Included in the reading will be a few pages from my next novel, THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE.

The interview will be conducted by novelist Dermot Bolger.

If you’d like to come along, you can get tickets from the Centre by calling (Dublin) 8721302. More details can be found here.

Seoige

Yesterday afternoon, I appeared on RTE’s afternoon television show, Seoige, to talk about 3 of my favourite novels: John Irving’s THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, Jonathan Coe’s WHAT A CARVE UP!, and David Peace’s THE DAMNED UTD.

You can watch the show here – my segment is the first on and lasts about 10 minutes.

Glen Dimplex Awards

I was a guest last night at the Glen Dimplex Awards in the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin. The annual awards, designed to showcase the best of new writers in five categories – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, children’s literature and Irish language writing - gave the overall prize of New Writer of the Year to Sally Nicholls for her book WAYS TO LIVE FOREVER. It was an enjoyable evening and lasted into the small hours as a group of us decamped to next door’s Irish Writers Centre to talk and drink into the night…

The importance of the Glen Dimplex awards can’t be overlooked, I think. Bringing 30 books by debut writers to public attention is no mean feat and it would be great to see the books and writers given more attention in the media and trade press. In the meantime, you can check out the shortlisted books if you want to read some interesting new voices.

A literary weekend

Lots of books-related activity this weekend. On Friday night I went to the book launch for Irish writer Alex Barclay’s new novel BLOOD RUNS COLD, which was great fun. Then all of Saturday was spent at the Tower Hotel in Tallaght for the annual Readers Day events. Organised by Dermot Bolger, the 300 or so guests on the day got to hear a selection of poems by local poets, a chat between Dermot and Patricia Scanlan about her work methods and novels. This was followed by a fascinating talk by photographer John Minihan about his work, including those iconographic portraits of Samuel Beckett for which he is rightly celebrated. Next up was Claire Kilroy, who read from her third novel (to be published next May) ALL NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED. (I’ve been lucky enough to read this book in advance and it’s an extraordinary book which explores the tensions of the creative life while delving into life in Dublin in the 1980s). After lunch there was an emotional conversation with former hostage Brian Keenan and a typically energetic reading by the great Glenn Patterson from three of his books, including the recent memoir ONCE UPON A HILL. And finally I gave a reading from MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY and engaged in conversation with Dermot about my other novels and, of course, the recent  film. All in all a really enjoyable day for both the writers and the readers alike.