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Research suggests that reading literary fiction is an effective way to enhance the brain's ability to keep an open mind while processing information, a necessary skill for effective decision-making.

Nominations from 40 countries, spanning 19 languages.
4 novels from Ireland among those nominated for the €100,000 prize

The longlist was selected by the 2021 judging panel consisting of: cultural historian and novelist, Lucy Hughes-Hallett (chair); journalist and writer, Aida Edemariam; Man Booker shortlisted novelist, Neel Mukherjee; Professor of the History of Slavery, Olivette Otele; and poet, translator and biographer, George Szirtes.

First awarded in 2006, the An Post Irish Book Awards showcase a diverse mix of exceptional writing from new and established writers across sixteen categories, with this year’s star-studded awards ceremony taking place in the Convention Centre Dublin. A host of Ireland’s leading writers, publishers, booksellers and media personalities were all in attendance to see the winners claim their awards.Below is the full list of winners for the ‘An Post Irish Book Awards 2019’ (with links to our catalogue):RTÉ Radio 1 Listeners’ Choice AwardOvercoming – Vicky Phelan with Naomi Linehan (Hachette Books) – Championed by Ray D’ArcyBord Gáis Energy Sports Book of the YearRecovering – Richie Sadlier with Dion Fanning (Gill Books)Avoca Cookbook of the YearCornucopia: The Green Cookbook – Tony Keogh, Aoife Carrigy, the Chefs of Cornucopia, Deirdre and Dairine McCafferty (Gill Books)Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the YearCruel Acts – Jane Casey (HarperFiction)Bookselling Ireland Non-Fiction Book of the YearConstellations – Sinéad Gleeson (Picador), also available on Borrowbox, eBook and audio.TheJournal.ie Best Irish-Published Book of the YearChildren of the Troubles – Joe Duffy and Freya McClements (Hachette Books Ireland), also available on Borrowbox as eBook.Love Leabhar Gaeilge Irish Language Book of the YearTairngreacht – Proinsias Mac a’Bhaird (LeabhairComhar)Dept51 @ Eason Teen & Young Adult Book of the YearOther Words for Smoke – Sarah Maria Griffin (Titan Books)Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year – SeniorShooting for the Stars – My Journey to Become Ireland’s First Astronaut – Norah Patten, illustrated by Jennifer Farley (The O’Brien Press)Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year – Junior123 Ireland! – Aoife Dooley (Little Island Books)Sunday Independent Newcomer of the YearWhen All is Said – Anne Griffin (Hodder & Stoughton)National Book Tokens Popular Fiction Book of the YearOnce, Twice, Three Times an Aisling – Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen (Gill Books)Listowel Writers’ Week Irish Poem of the YearSalt Rain – Audrey Molloy (Mslexia, September 2019)Writing.ie Short Story of the Year AwardParrot – Nicole Flattery (The Stinging Fly, Issue 39, Volume 2, Winter 2018-19)Ireland AM Popular Non-Fiction Book of the YearBarefoot Pilgrimage – Andrea Corr (HarperNonFiction) also available on Borrowbox as eBook.Eason Novel of the YearShadowplay – Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker) also available on Borrowbox as eBook.Joining the library is simple as ABC. There are no fines and you can use your card in any library in Ireland. Teenagers will need the signature of a parent or guardian when completing the membership form. Their parent or guardian will need to bring photo I.D. and proof of address.BorrowBox is available from your local library, or as an app downloadable to your mobile device. All you need is an email address, your library barcode and a PIN number.  Kindle ereaders will only work with books purchased from Amazon. However, you can read BorrowBox books on a Kindle Fire tablet. http://www.dublincity.ie/library-eresources 

Eight novels from Ireland are among 156 books nominated by libraries around the world for the 2020 International DUBLIN Literary Award. With the winner receiving €100,000, the Award is the world’s most valuable annual prize for a single work of fiction published in English. Nominations include 50 novels in translation with works nominated by libraries from 40 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, the US & Canada, South America and Australia & New Zealand.Organised by Dublin City Council, the 2020 Award was launched today by Cllr. Mary Fitzpatrick, representing Lord Mayor Paul McAuliffe, Patron of the Award. Cllr. Fitzpatrick commended the Award for its promotion of excellence in world literature and the opportunity it provides to promote Irish writing internationally;“I am very pleased that Dublin City Council continues to support this significant international award. Dublin is a UNESCO City of Literature and the Council is committed to further developing the City’s worldwide reputation as a literary destination, a key part of our cultural tourism offering.”The Irish titles nominated for the 2020 Award are:  A Ladder to the Sky by John BoyneMilkman by Anna BurnsThe Woman in the Woods by John ConnollyBegotten Not Made by Cónal CreedonOrchid and the Wasp by Caoilinn HughesSkin Deep by Liz NugentTravelling in a Strange Land by David ParkNormal People by Sally Rooney The International DUBLIN Literary Award is managed by Dublin City Council’s library service. Mairead Owens, Dublin City Librarian, announced that the 156 books eligible for the 2020 award were nominated by libraries in 119 cities and 40 countries worldwide; noting that 50 are titles in translation, spanning 21 languages and 51 books are first novels.Speaking of the global interest in the Award, the City Librarian Mairead Owens remarked;“This great prize affirms Dublin’s commitment to international writers and translators, to literature and creativity. Through this award Dublin, a UNESCO City of Literature, brings the worldwide community of readers together to read the works of contemporary writers from all corners of the world.”Most Nominated BooksThe book that received most nominations for 2020 is There There by Tommy Orange, chosen by 13 libraries in Canada, Greece, Ireland, and the USA . The second-most nominated book is Washington Black by Esi Edugyan, chosen by 11 libraries in Canada, England, Jamaica, and USA. Normal People by Sally Rooney was nominated by libraries in Germany, New Zealand and Ireland.Katona József Library of Bács-Kiskun County, Hungary nominated Orchid and the Wasp by Irish author Caoilinn Hughes noting: “The book is the girl’s coming of age story across different places and in circumstances of economic collapse and family dynamics.  Themes and messages of morality, mental health, class, religion and contemporary politics are written in a modern and unique style.” Other novels nominated for the 2020 Award include Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2018 and who also won the 2018 Man Booker International Prize for her novel Flight, and The Great Fall by Peter Handke, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2019. Novels in TranslationAmong the 50 translated books are novels originally published in Arabic, Catalan, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malayalam, Norwegian, Polish, Portugese, Romanian, Russian, Slovene and Spanish.Translated authors include Peter Handke, Olga Tokarczuk, Benyamin, Chico Buarque, Paolo Cognetti, Adélaide de Clermont-Tonnerre, Julián Fuks, and Cristina Rivera Garza. Judging PanelThe 2020 international Judging Panel comprises Irish editor and columnist, Niall MacMonagle; Scottish author and editor Zoë Strachan; Yannick Garcia, a Catalan writer and translator based in Barcelona; Cathy Rentzenbrink, a Sunday Times top ten bestseller of the year writer; and Indian-born translator and champion of the novel, Shreela Ghosh. The non-voting Chairperson is Professor Chris Morash, Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Writing at Trinity College Dublin. Borrow the Books!All the novels nominated for the Award are available for readers to borrow from Dublin’s public libraries. The full list of 156 titles has been published in a free newsletter, and all details are also on the newly revamped Award website at www.dublinliteraryaward.ie.  What's Next?The shortlist will be published on 2nd April 2020, and the Lord Mayor of Dublin will announce the winner on 10th June 2020.  

The shortlist for the An Post Irish Book Awards 2019, features a diverse mix of exceptional writing from new and established writers across sixteen categories, including Novel of the Year, Children’s, Cookery, Crime Fiction, Popular Fiction, Nonfiction, Sports, Short Story, Poetry, Teen and Young Adult and Irish Language. Shortlisted writers include Kevin Barry, Edna O’Brien, Joseph O’Connor, Cecelia Ahern, Emma Dabiri, Fintan O’Toole, Samantha Power, Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen, Jamie Heaslip, Andrea Corr, Vicky Phelan, Diarmaid Ferriter, Sinéad Gleeson, Mary Costello, Rosita Boland, Joe Duffy and Freya McClements.The An Post Irish Book Awards 2019 Shortlist is as follows (with links to our catalogue):Eason Novel of the YearNight Boat to Tangier – Kevin Barry (Canongate Books)Girl – Edna O’Brien (Faber & Faber)Shadowplay – Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker)This is Happiness – Niall Williams (Bloomsbury Publishing)The Narrow Land – Christine Dwyer Hickey (Atlantic Books)The River Capture – Mary Costello (Canongate Books)National Book Tokens Popular Fiction Book of the YearOnce, Twice, Three Times an Aisling – Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen (Gill Books)Filter This – Sophie White (Hachette Ireland)Postscript – Cecelia Ahern (HarperFiction)When All is Said – Anne Griffin (Hodder & Stoughton)Schmidt Happens – Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (Penguin Ireland)Seven Letters – Sinéad Moriarty (Penguin Ireland)Bookselling Ireland Non-Fiction Book of the YearElsewhere – Rosita Boland (Doubleday Ireland)Heroic Failure – Fintan O’Toole (Head of Zeus)Republic of Shame – Caelainn Hogan (Penguin Ireland)Constellations – Sinéad Gleeson (Picador)The Border: The Legacy of a Century of Anglo-Irish Politics – Diarmaid Ferriter (Profile Books)The Education of an Idealist – Samantha Power (William Collins)Ireland AM Popular Non-Fiction Book of the YearMy Crazy World – Christy Dignam with Damian Corless (Simon & Schuster)Overcoming – Vicky Phelan with Naomi Linehan (Hachette Ireland)Barefoot Pilgrimage – Andrea Corr (HarperNonFiction)The Personals – Brian O’Connell (HarperNonFiction)Live While You Can – Fr Tony Coote (Hachette Books Ireland)The Making of a Detective – Pat Marry (Penguin Ireland)Sunday Independent Newcomer of the YearLeonard & Hungry Paul – Ronan Hession (Bluemoose Books)Last Ones Left Alive – Sarah Davis-Goff (Tinder Press)When All is Said – Anne Griffin (Hodder & Stoughton)Show Them a Good Time – Nicole Flattery (The Stinging Fly Press)Minor Monuments – Ian Maleney (Tramp Press)Don’t Touch My Hair – Emma Dabiri (Allen Lane)TheJournal.ie Best Irish Published Book of the YearThe Great Irish Science Book – Luke O’Neill, illustrated by Linda Fährlin (Gill Books)Children of the Troubles – Joe Duffy and Freya McClements (Hachette Books Ireland)Dare to Dream – Irish People Who Took on the World (and Won!) – Sarah Webb, illustrated by Graham Corcoran (The O’Brien Press)Beautiful Affair – Mike Hanrahan (HarperNonFiction)Ireland Through Birds: Journeys in Search of a Wild Nation – Conor W. O’Brien (Merrion Press)A History of Ireland in 100 Words – Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh and Gregory Toner, illustrated by Joe McLaren (Royal Irish Academy)Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the YearRewind – Catherine Ryan Howard (Corvus)Cruel Acts – Jane Casey (HarperFiction)The Chain – Adrian McKinty (Orion)Twisted – Steve Cavanagh (Orion)The Wych Elm – Tana French (Viking)The Hiding Game – Louise Phillips (Hachette Ireland)Avoca Cookbook of the YearCornucopia: The Green Cookbook – Tony Keogh, Aoife Carrigy, the Chefs of Cornucopia, Deirdre and Dairine McCafferty (Gill Books)Clever Batch – Susan Jane White (Gill Books)One Pot Feeds All – Darina Allen (Kyle Books)Clodagh’s Suppers – Clodagh McKenna (Kyle Books)From the Oven to the Table – Diana Henry (Mitchell Beazley)Donal’s Super Food in Minutes – Donal Skehan (Yellow Kite)Bord Gáis Energy Sports Book of the YearAbout That Goal – The Official Autobiography of Seamus Darby – Seamus Darby with PJ Cunningham (Ballpoint Press) - on order, please reserve in person in branch.Recovering – Richie Sadlier with Dion Fanning (Gill Books)All In – Jamie Heaslip with Matt Cooper (Gill Books)Something in the Water: How Skibbereen Rowing Club Conquered the World – Kieran McCarthy (Mercier Press)Camouflage – My Story – Eoin Larkin with Pat Nolan (Reach Sport)The Dublin Marathon – Celebrating 40 Years – Sean McGoldrick (The O’Brien Press)RTÉ Radio One Listeners’ Choice AwardNight Boat to Tangier – Kevin Barry (Canongate Books) – Championed by Joe DuffyGirl – Edna O’Brien (Faber & Faber) – Championed by Sean O’RourkeShadowplay – Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker) – Championed by Ryan TubridyOvercoming – Vicky Phelan with Naomi Linehan (Hachette Books) – Championed by Ray D’ArcyOnce, Twice, Three Times an Aisling – Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen (Gill Books) – Championed by Miriam O’CallaghanSpecsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Junior)The President’s Surprise – Peter Donnelly (Gill Books)Boot: Small Robot, Big Adventure – Shane Hegarty, illustrated by Ben Mantle (Hachette Children’s Group)Don’t Worry Little Crab – Chris Haughton (Walker Books)Tiny and Teeny – Chris Judge (Walker Books) - can be reserved through other local authorities123 Ireland! – Aoife Dooley (Little Island Books)Take Five – Niall Breslin, illustrated by Sheena Dempsey (Gill Books)Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Senior)Family Fun Unplugged – Peter Cosgrove (Penguin Ireland)The Lost Tide Warriors – Catherine Doyle (Bloomsbury Publishing)A Strange Kind of Brave – Sarah Moore Fitzgerald (Hachette Children’s Group)Gordon’s Game – Gordon D’Arcy and Paul Howard (Penguin Ireland)Shooting for the Stars – My Journey to Become Ireland’s First Astronaut – Norah Patten, illustrated by Jennifer Farley (The O’Brien Press)Lily at Lissadell – Judi Curtin (The O’Brien Press)Dept 51 @ Eason Teen / Young Adult Book of the YearToffee – Sarah Crossan (Bloomsbury Publishing)All the Invisible Things – Orlagh Collins (Bloomsbury Publishing)Perfectly Preventable Deaths – Deirdre Sullivan (Bonnier Books UK)Other Words for Smoke – Sarah Maria Griffin (Titan Books)The M Word – Brian Conaghan (Bloomsbury Publishing) -can be reserved through other local authoritiesAll the Bad Apples – Moïra Fowley-Doyle (Puffin)Listowel Writers’ Week Irish Poem of the YearSalt Rain – Audrey Molloy (Mslexia, September 2019)The Kerchief – Christine Broe (Poetry Ireland and Trócaire Poetry Competition 2019)Pine Box in the Flea Market – Dean Browne (The Stinging Fly, Summer 2019)Dear Sean – Paul McMahon (The North – Special Irish Issue)Writing.ie Short Story of the YearParrot – Nicole Flattery (The Stinging Fly, Issue 39, Volume 2, Winter 2018-19)A Real Woman – Orla McAlinden (Full of Grace, published by Red Stag)Mother May I – Amy Gaffney (HCE Review, Volume 3, Issue 1)Sparing the Heather – Louise Kennedy (Banshee, Issue 8)Balloon Animals – Laura-Blaise McDowell (Still Worlds Turning, published by No Alibis Press)The Lamb – Andrea Carter (Counterparts: A Synergy of Law and Literature, The Stinging Fly Press)The Love Leabhar Gaeilge Irish Language Book of the YearGáire in Éag – Seán Ó Muireagáin (Éabhlóid)Gráinne Gaiscíoch Gael – Siobhán Parkinson (Cois Life)Mar a Bhí ar dTús – Joe Steve Ó Neachtain (Cló Iar-Chonnacht)Tairngreacht – Proinsias Mac a’Bhaird (LeabhairComhar)Cití na gCártaí – Réaltán Ní Leannáin (Cois Life)An Tromdhámh – Feargal Ó Béarra (Leabhar Breac)Votes may be cast until 13th November, visit the Award website to register your vote. The winners will be announced at the gala ceremony in the Convention Centre Dublin, Spencer Dock, on Wednesday 20th November. 

American author Emily Ruskovich has won the 2019 International DUBLIN Literary Award for her novel Idaho. Set in the Idaho Pandandle it tells the sory of the impact of an shocking act of violence on a family. The winning novel was chosen from a total of 141 titles, nominated by libraries in 115 cities across 41 countries. Idaho was nominated by the public library in Brugge, Belgium.The Award is organised and sponsored by Dublin City Council and at €100,000 is the world’s largest prize for a single novel published in English. Emily Ruskovich is the fourth American author to win the prize in its 24-year history.Uniquely, the Award receives its nominations from public libraries in cities around the globe and recognises both writers and translators. The winner was announced at a ceremony in Dublin's Mansion House today.Emily Ruskovich grew up in the Idaho Panhandle, on Hoodoo Mountain. Her fiction has appeared in Zoetrope, One Story and the Virginia Quarterly Review. A winner of a 2015 O. Henry Award and a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, she now teaches creative writing at the University of Colorado, Denver. Idaho is her first novel.  Speaking at the winner announcement, Lord Mayor & Patron of the remarked; ‘The International DUBLIN Literary Award is a great Dublin success and a great international success - and our thanks go to all who are involved in making the Award work – writers, translators, publishers, librarians, and the administrative staff of the City Council.’The 2019 judging panel, which includes Irish author Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, commented:‘At the heart of Emily Ruskovich’s haunting debut novel is the inexplicable. A young couple, Jenny and Wade, move from the prairies to the utter loneliness and unexpected isolation of the Northern Idaho mountains where they carelessly bought a piece of wooded land on a steep mountainside. As yet, they know nothing about the winter that will entrap them:  masses of snow, no plow, no neighbours, the next settlement eight miles away. This is not an idyll. Years go by. They build a house with their own hands; two children are born – May and June. Then, all of a sudden, in a brutal flash, with no warning, their happiness and their love are destroyed forever.Ruskovich’s masterful achievement is to narrate with consummate skill the complex series of events covering a time-span of more than fifty years. Empathy and love stand next to cruelty and crime. Individual guilt, trauma and pain are looming as large as eventual forgiveness and the ability to live in half-knowledge. Ultimately, Idaho evolves into a masterpiece on the redeeming and regenerative potential of music, poetry, literature and art.’ The other judges were Ge Yan, Evie Wyld, Martin Middeke and Hans-Christian Oeser. The non-voting chair was Judge Eugene Sullivan.Copies of the winner, the shortlist and the full list of novels nominated for the 2019 award available to borrow from Dublin Public libraries at https://dcpla.ie/Idaho

The shortlist for 2019's International Dublin Literary award has just been announced and it includes two Irish authors! The award is for novels written in English or translated to English. As well as the entries form Ireland this year's shortlist of ten includes books from France, Pakistan, the UK and the USA.The International DUBLIN Literary Award is proudly sponsored by Dublin City Council and managed by Dublin City Libraries. The award is worth €100,000 to the winner. If the book has been translated the author receives €75,000 and the translator received €25,000.   The two Irish novels are Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney and Midwinter Break by Bernard MacLaverty. The complete list of shortlisted titles are:Compass by Mathias Énard  (French) Translated from French by Charlotte Mandell. Nominated by Paris, France and Kecskemét, Hungary.Borrow a copy from the library History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund (American). Nominated by Zurich, Switzerland and Stamford, USA.Borrow a copy from the library Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (Pakistani / British). Nominated by Bridgetown, Barbados; Brussels, Belgium; Halifax and Toronto, Canada; Dusseldorf, Germany; Barcelona, Spain; Houston, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, San Diego and Pittsburgh, USA.Borrow a copy from the library | Borrow an ebook Midwinter Break by Bernard MacLaverty (Northern Ireland). Nominated by Newcastle and London, UK; Galway, Ireland; Bern, Switzerland; Milwaukee and San Diego, USA.Borrow a copy from the library | Borrow an ebook Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (British). Nominated by Brussels, Belgium; Sydney and Winnipeg, Canada; Nottingham, UK; Limerick, Ireland and Bergen, Norway.Borrow a copy from the library  | Borrow an ebook Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (Irish). Nominated by Liverpool, Dublin and Stockholm, Sweden.Borrow a copy from the library | Borrow an ebook Idaho by Emily Ruskovich (American). Nominated by Brugges, Belgium.Borrow a copy from the library Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (American). Nominated by Prague, Czech Republic; Reykjavík, Iceland; Barcelona, Spain; Cincinnati, Portland, Kansas City, Denver, Concord and Iowa City, USA.Borrow a copy from the library | Borrow an ebook A Boy in Winter by Rachel Seiffert (British). Nominated by Bergen, Norway.Borrow a copy from the library Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (Pakistani / British). Nominated by Philadelphia, Richmond and Columbia, USA.Borrow a copy from the library Speaking about the award Lord Mayor of Dublin, and Patron of the Award, Nial Ring said "The egalitarian way in which books are long listed, through public libraries worldwide, is to be commended in a world where sales figures can dominate the literary conversation so often. The beauty of this award is that it reaches out to readers and authors worldwide, while also celebrating excellence in contemporary Irish literature represented on the 2019 shortlist by Sally Rooney and Bernard MacLaverty."The titles on this year’s shortlist were nominated by public libraries in Barbados, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the USA said Mairead Owens, Dublin City Librarian. The novels come from France, Ireland, Pakistan, the UK and the USA and it is from this diverse list that the eventual winner will be chosen. Memorable characters tell stories of identity and displacement, violence and war, family, relationships and loss, set in both familiar and unfamiliar countries and cultures. ‘The five member international judging panel, chaired by Hon. Eugene R. Sullivan, will select one winner, which will be announced by the Lord Mayor, Patron of the Award, on Wednesday 12th June.

Lord Mayor of Dublin, Nial Ring, launched today (27th February) the programme for the 2019 Dublin: One City One Book which this year features The Country Girls Trilogy by Edna O’Brien. The Country Girls Trilogy joins a long list of illustrious titles as this year’s featured book in the Dublin: One City One Book Festival. Dublin One City One Book is a Dublin City Council initiative, led by Dublin City Public Libraries, which encourages everyone to read a book connected with the capital city during the month of April every year.The Country Girls Trilogy, published by Faber & Faber, is introduced by Eimear McBride and includes The Country Girls and its sequels The Lonely Girl and Girls in Their Married Bliss, which changed the temperature of Irish literature in the 1960s and inspired generations of readers and writers. The passion, artistry and courage of Edna O’Brien’s vision in these novels continue to resonate into the 21st century.Speaking at the launch in Dublin’s Mansion House, the Lord Mayor remarked:“Edna O’Brien is one of Ireland’s most talented, treasured and most read authors, so I am very proud that our capital city is honouring her talent and legacy by selecting her much acclaimed work ‘The Country Girls Trilogy’ as the ‘Dublin One City One Book’ choice this year. Dublin City Council’s initiative is a creative and inclusive way to get all our citizens reading. With copies of The Country Girls Trilogy available to borrow for free throughout our public library network, it just remains for the people of Dublin to embrace and enjoy this great book which I know they will.”The month-long festival will feature dramatised readings, a new Dublin City Libraries exhibition banned books titled Evil Literature, talks on censorship, women’s roles and Irish society in 1950s and ‘60s, coming of age novels, music performances, film screenings, documentaries, workshops and seminars.  The four public library services in the Dublin area will be hosting events as well as organisations such as Irish Writers Centre, The New Theatre, IFI, Trinity College, UCD and National Library.Edna O’Brien said:"I worked in Dublin as an apprentice pharmacist from 1948 to 1952, so it's where I first encountered literature and set out on the very secret and profane matter of writing The Country Girls Trilogy.""I never dreamed the Trilogy would last so long and make it to this winning post. I am delighted and hope for new readers who won’t have to hide it under the bedcovers as they did in the sixties and onwards..... Dublin has given me longevity.” The flagship event of this year’s festival is An Evening With Edna, an evening of music, readings and discussion in The Round Room, Mansion House on Wednesday 24th April. Edna O’Brien will be interviewed about her enormous contribution to world literature by writer Colum McCann. Singer Moya Brennan and harpist Cormac de Barra will play some of her favourite music and selected excerpts from The Country Girls Trilogy will be read by actor Seána Kerslake, star of the new movie The Hole in the Ground. This event is free but booking is essential at www.dublinonecityonebook.ie/programme Dublin’s acting City Librarian, Brendan Teeling invited Dubliners to share in the City’s celebration of the books, saying:“We work hard every year to choose a book that will capture the imagination of the people of Dublin, of all ages and walks of life. Exquisitely written, moving, humorous, full of compelling characters, and still as relevant as when it was written in the early 1960s, I know that The Country Girls Trilogy will prove a rewarding experience for all who engage with Dublin One City One Book 2019. In Edna O’Brien’s home county of Clare, book clubs affiliated with Clare County Libraries will be reading the book during April and hosting their own event to honour Edna O’Brien. RTÉ Radio One’s The Book on One will feature The Country Girls during the month of April. A new adaptation by Edna O’Brien of The Country Girls runs at the Abbey Theatre from 23rd February to 6th April before going on a national tour. Faber & Faber have produced a special edition of the trilogy for the Festival (Photo Below), and Lee Brackstone, O’Brien’s editor at Faber & Faber, remarked:‘In 1960 Edna O’Brien detonated a literary bomb, the reverberations of which continue to work their way through the culture and the Irish diaspora. The Country Girls is one of the beacons of radical 20th century literature.’Printed programme of events can be picked up in all our Dublin City Public Library Branches and bookshops across Dublin. The Country Girls Trilogy is available to borrow from libraries, can be reserved online, downloaded as an eBook from the library’s free Borrowbox app, and buy in bookshops. It is available in audio book format and has been produced in Braille by the National Council for the Blind of Ireland.There are a whole host of events to mark the One City One Book festival, highlights of the programme include;An Evening With Edna. The Round Room, Mansion House. Wednesday 24th AprilEdna O’Brien will be interviewed about her enormous contribution to world literature by writer Colum McCann. Singer Moya Brennan and harpist Cormac de Barra will play some of her favourite music and selected excerpts from the Country Girls will be read by Seána Kerslake at this very special event. This event is free but booking is essential at www.dublinonecityonebook.ie/programmeEvil Literature: Banned Books Exhibition. Dublin City Library & Archive, 138-144 Pearse St, Dublin 2. From 3rd April to 31st May 2019. Launch and Event Wednesday 3rd April.This exhibition of banned books is based on the collections of Dublin City Reading Room and Dublin City Archives. Following the official launch on 3rd April there will be a discussion on the history of book censorship in Ireland with Dr Margaret Kelleher (UCD), Tom Quinlan, Keeper of the National Archives, and historian Donal Fallon. Chaired by Madeleine Keane, Sunday Independent Literary Editor.Free. Booking on EventBrite for talk.Coming of Age Novels. Dublin City Library & Archive, Pearse St. Thursday 11th April.Join authors Catherine Dunne and Alan McMonagle to discuss The Country Girls Trilogy and why coming of age stories are so powerfully resonant for readers. Chaired by Michael G. Cronin, lecturer in English at Maynooth University.Free. Booking on Eventbrite.ieGirls in Their Married Bliss on Stage. The New Theatre, Temple Bar. 24th to 27th April.A selection of excerpts from the final book in Edna O’Brien’s acclaimed trilogy. Romantic Baba and pragmatic Baba, now both married, experience the trials and troubles of love and passion against the drop of 1960s London.Box Office: www.thenewtheatre.com Tickets €8/€6Irish Writers Centre Workshops April 13th and 18th.The Irish Writers Centre is playing homage to The Country Girls Trilogy and 1950s Ireland with bespoke offerings arising from themes in the books. Workshops will cover such topics as: researching social history for authentic writing, developing a character over time and the tricky task of writing sensual stories with the uncompromising flair of Edna O’Brien. Plus a panel discussion focussing on class and urban/rural divides in Irish society.  Featuring acclaimed Irish writers including Catherine Dunne and Dermot Bolger.Free. Booking at www.irishwriterscentre.ieThe Country Girls at the Abbey Theatre. 23rd February to 6th April.Edna O’Brien revisits her era-defining debut novel in a new stage adaptation of The Country Girls at the Abbey Theatre. Directed by Graham McLaren. After the Dublin run, The Country Girls will go on a national tour.www.abbeytheatre.ie or Box Office 01-8787222Full Programme can be viewed here and event details on www.dublinonecityonebook.ieAboutThe BookWhen The Country Girls, Edna O’Brien’s first novel, appeared in 1960, it predated and anticipated the feminist revolution.  It stood out and stood alone, upturning every category.  There was little to compare with it. The Country Girls grew over time to what we now know as The Country Girls Trilogy, encompassing the title volume, a second novel Girl with Green Eyes, published in 1962, and Girls in Their Married Bliss, published in 1964.  It is given to few to write their most important works early on.  Quite simply, The Country Girls is a twentieth-century literary masterpiece which anticipates and puts into effect a feminist revolution all of its own. It tells the story of two young girls from Country Clare, Cait Brady and Baba Brennan, and tracks them from childhood through the vicissitudes of adolescence, marriage, emigration to Dublin and then to London and the terrible reckonings of adult life.  Cait, the timid romanticist, who unfailingly falls for the wrong kind of man and suffers accordingly, is contrasted with Baba who is more hard-nosed, cynical, and pragmatic. The Country Girls Trilogy is outstanding because of its stylistic variation and the uncanny accuracy of its vision: each of the novels is tonally quite different but each achieves the same level of precision and insight into the social and emotional conditions of lives in 1950s rural Ireland and in London in the 1960s.The AuthorEdna O’Brien’s first novel, The Country Girls, was published in 1960.  Since then, she has published prolifically across numerous genres.  Her works includes 18 novels, 9 collections of short stories, 4 plays, biographies of James Joyce and Byron, a cultural history of Ireland, a memoir, and a volume of poetry.  Edna O’Brien would be revered if she had written nothing other than The Country Girls Trilogy.  However, she has continued to produce distinctive and engaging novels and stories that particularly follow the course of women’s lives and capture the emotional fabric of their worlds with unfailing accuracy and insight. Edna O’Brien has changed the fabric of the Irish novel by widening its circumference in enduring ways.  She has used her breath-taking inventiveness, creative audacity, distinctive vision, and unsurpassed stylistic precision to give voice to female experience and sexuality and to bring a myriad of feminist themes into the ambit of the novel.   Her fiction is above all to be relished for its truth, its wit, its emotional scale and depth, and the incisiveness of its style.  To read Edna O’Brien is to make the acquaintance of a writer with a drive to represent the modern world in all of its uncomfortable and unlovely but eminently human aspects and of an artist besotted with the English language which she deploys with fastidious care. Edna O’Brien is the recipient of many awards, including the Irish PEN Lifetime Achievement Award, the American National Arts Gold Medal, the Frank O’Connor Prize and the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. Born and raised in the west of Ireland, she has lived in London for many years. Dublin One City One BookPrevious books featured are: At Swim Two Birds by Flann O’ Brien (2006); A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry (2007); Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (2008); Dracula by Bram Stoker (2009); The  Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde (2010; Ghost Light by Joseph O’Connor (2011); Dubliners by James Joyce (2012); Strumpet City by James Plunkett (2013); If Ever You Go: a map of Dublin in poetry and song edited by Pat Boran and Gerard Smyth (2014); The Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle (2015); Fallen by Lia Mills (2016); Echoland by Joe Joyce (2017) and The Long Gaze Back, An Anthology of Irish Women Writers edited by Sinéad Gleeson (2018).