A Books Editor’s Favorite Irish Books to Read for St. Patrick’s Day
Pick up a classic or find a new favorite with these Irish authors.
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Ireland has a long and storied literary tradition, stretching all the way back from ancient oral myth to today’s modern classics. Whether you’re celebrating your own Irish heritage or simply sharing in some of their literary greatness, there are plenty of compelling Irish authors and books to add to your shelf.
Like with any body of cultural work, there is no one way to be Irish, and Irish books are not a monolith. Some are funny, some heartbreaking, some are about immigration, others about generations living in the same small town. But although Irish literature can look like—and be!—almost anything, the Irish books I’m most drawn to tend to have themes surrounding the pull of family ties, the pervasive influence of religion, the grind of small-town struggle, and an indomitable sense of resilience.
On my list of the best Irish books and authors to read right now, I’ve included some classics, some modern picks, and even a debut author for you to find your next great read.
Perhaps the quintessential work of Irish literature, Ulysses captures the events (or non-events) of a single day in Dublin in 1904. This stream-of-consciousness, modernist novel isn’t a light read, but it is worth spending time with if you’re looking to immerse yourself in a classic of the Irish canon.
Sally Rooney is a perennial favorite of litfic fans for her sharply observed emotional insight. In Normal People, Connell and Marianne are opposites drawn to each other again and again through their years in high school and college in Dublin.
Through their on-again, off-again relationship, they can’t stop hurting each other or let each other go, caught in a heady mix of shame and devotion that captures coming of age with beautiful heartbreak.
This debut novel by an up-and-coming Irish author was one of our favorite books of 2024. It’s set in a small town in County Donegal in the lead-up to the Irish referendum on divorce. The townsfolk all gossip, but nobody’s marriage is above reproach in this claustrophobic, multi-POV drama dissecting the relationship and family woes of the town and the vicious conclusions they lead to.
Billy Lynch was an Irishman, an incurable alcoholic, and a foiled romantic. At his funeral, his friends and family remember his life in both its humor and its immense tragedy, creating a complicated portrait of love, regret, lies, and family in this National Book Award winner.
In the 1950s, electricity hadn't yet reached the rural village of Faha in County Clare. With lyrical prose that matches the slow-moving yet contemplative pace of Faha, this emotional drama explores the tight-knit community through the lens of a boy who has lost his faith in the world, as the arrival of electricity sets them all on the cusp of change.
(Bonus: another book by Niall Williams, Time of the Child, is set in the same village and was a GH Book Club Pick.)
Read Brooklyn before diving into its well-received sequel, Long Island, which is set 20 years after the original. Brooklyn follows Eilis Lacey, an Irish girl coming of age in a small town after World War II. She immigrates to Brooklyn and falls in love, but is recalled to Ireland when tragedy strikes. This is a story about immigration, silence, and building a life caught between countries.
This family drama is a popular pick for book clubs, following two Irish-born immigrant families in New York as they navigate life-changing tragedy. Over the course of 40 years, it explores the effects of trauma, mental illness, abandonment, addiction, and more across three generations as the families must reconcile with each other and the past in sometimes explosive and sometimes heartbreaking ways.
This darkly tragicomic family novel is set in Ireland after the 2008 financial crash. An apocalypse survival bunker, teenage drinking, a 12-year-old wanna-be runaway, and a failing car business are some of the challenges facing the Barnes family in this sharp novel of middle-class malaise and overlapping tragedy.
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