This post originally was published on Audible.com.
Ireland, despite its modest geographical size and population, is an unmatched literary engine of the world. Yes, storytelling may be a common trait among Irish people, but that is not the only factor contributing to the wealth of Irish literature. A landscape rich with libraries, literary magazines, bookshops, and festivals ensures reading and writing are parts of everyday life in Ireland.
Many readers are introduced to Irish literature through classics by Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, and Samuel Beckett. But plenty of contemporary Irish writers are creating works destined to become classics themselves. These writers tackle topics at home and abroad with signature wit and emotion. Whether you’re interested in listening to stories of village life, historical events, or people’s complex inner lives, you’re sure to find a writer on this list whose work resonates with you.
Sally Rooney is a preternaturally talented Irish author who writes about the complications of love, friendships, and young adulthood in a way that's utterly engrossing. Winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award in 2017, she has since attracted international acclaim. Her first three novels—Conversations with Friends, Normal People, and Beautiful World, Where Are You—were narrated dynamically by Aoife McMahon, while her latest, Intermezzo, highlighted the talents of Éanna Hardwicke. Normal People, which follows two characters from the same small Irish town who keep falling back into each other's lives, was longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize and adapted into a hit limited series streaming on Hulu.
Tana French is an award-winning literary crime fiction author from Dublin. Though most of her novels are part of the Dublin Murder Squad series, they are loosely connected and can be listened to in any order. In 2020, she began a new series with The Searcher, about Cal Hooper, a retired American police officer who moves to rural Ireland in search of a peaceful life. Instead, a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, and Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat. The Hunter, released in 2024, picks up with Cal again in another atmospheric, character-driven crime thriller that is some of Tana French’s best work yet.
Every one of Donal Ryan’s novels has been a number-one bestseller in Ireland. His debut novel, The Spinning Heart, was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2013 and was adapted into an Irish-language film, Foscadh, in 2020. For a poetic intergenerational story, listen to The Queen of Dirt Island. The Aylward family of County Tipperary experiences love, betrayal, forgiveness, and more as four generations of women share a small house. Emma Lowe’s narration of this moving story has been praised as “masterful” by listeners. We're looking forward to Ryan's new novel, Heart, Be at Peace, in which he once again explores small-town Ireland and the betrayals, secrets, and grudges that can divide families, towns, and entire generations.
Emma Donoghue is a Dublin-born author best known for her bestselling novel Room, for which she also wrote the screenplay of the 2015 movie adaptation that won Brie Larson the Academy Award for Best Actress. Donoghue’s latest, The Paris Express, is a sweeping work of historical fiction about the infamous 1895 disaster at the Paris Montparnasse train station. A propulsive novel packed with a fascinating cast of characters, it captures the politics, glamour, chaos, and speed that marked the end of the 19th century.
Paul Murray studied English literature at Trinity College, Dublin. His 2010 novel Skippy Dies was longlisted for the Booker Prize. His most recent book, 2023’s The Bee Sting, was also longlisted for the Booker Prize, and won Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards. This funny, thought-provoking family saga chronicles the dysfunction of the Barnes family as they fall on hard times. Hailed as “symphonic” by listeners, the narration in this Audible exclusive is performed by an all-star ensemble cast: Heather O’Sullivan, Barry Fitzgerald, Beau Holland, Ciaran O'Brien, and Lisa Caruccio Came.
Colum McCann is a critically acclaimed author of literary fiction. He won the National Book Award and the International Dublin Literary Award for Let the Great World Spin, a fictionalized account of Philippe Petit's 1974 tightrope walk across the Twin Towers. McCann's latest, Twist, is about an Irish journalist assigned to cover the underwater cables that carry the world’s information, which sometimes break at unfathomable depths. At sea, he and the ship's captain are forced to confront the most elemental questions of life, love, absence, belonging, and the perils of our severed connections. Like many of McCann's narratives, it manages to be both resoundingly simple and thrillingly turbulent.
Born in Wexford, Ireland, John Banville has enjoyed a long and successful career as a writer of short stories, screenplays, anthologies, and, under a pseudonym, mystery series. However, he is best known and highly acclaimed for his many standalone novels, including the Man Booker Prize-winning The Sea, the poignant story of a middle-aged widower. In another favorite, his 2017 novel Mrs. Osmond, Banville boldly takes Henry James's classic The Portrait of a Lady and imagines what happens to the character Isabel Archer after the events of the novel. Amy Finnegan narrates.
New York Times bestselling author Caroline O'Donoghue writes fiction for both adults and teens. She also hosts the podcast Sentimental Garbage, about derided bits of culture she refuses to feel shame about loving. Her 2023 novel The Rachel Incident is a witty comedy of manners centering on the entangled lives of Rachel, her roommate, the married professor she’s in love with, and the professor’s wife. The lively narration by Tara Flynn distinguishes characters through their varied Irish accents.
John Boyne is the winner of four Irish Book Awards, including Author of the Year, and is a New York Times bestselling author of numerous books for children, novellas, short story collections, and 16 novels for adults, including the beloved The Heart’s Invisible Furies. In All the Broken Places, Boyne tells the story of a 91-year-old woman haunted by the past. The narrative moves back and forth in time between her girlhood in Nazi Germany and present-day London, where she is forced to face the complicity and guilt she has buried within herself for decades.
Colm Tóibín is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and poet. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, his short novel The Testament of Mary was hailed by The New York Times as an ideal audiobook. (Meryl Streep's narration may be a factor!) His novel The Master, a fictionalized telling of Henry James's inner life, won the prestigious International Dublin Literary Award. Tóibín's latest novel, Long Island, revisits characters from his beloved novel Brooklyn (which was made into an Academy Award-nominated film starring Saoirse Ronan). It follows the life of an Irish woman who immigrates to America and the choices she wrestles with as her identity shifts in relation to the lands she calls home.
Liz Nugent, born in Dublin, writes crime novels and psychological thrillers that have garnered awards such as the James Joyce Medal for Literature. Given Nugent's background in writing for radio and television dramas, it’s unsurprising that her audiobooks are excellently reviewed. If you enjoy ensemble casts, Strange Sally Diamond is narrated by Jessica Regan, Stephen Hogan, Sara Lynam, and Liz Nugent herself. This dark story follows the title character’s development after a horrible childhood. As she steps out from a secluded life into one of genuine human connection, she faces her trauma with tremendous bravery.
Eimear McBride might live in London now, but she was born in Ireland; her debut novel, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, is not one to be missed. In it, McBride tells the heartbreaking story of a girl who is struggling through her adolescence while dealing with sexual abuse and a brother who is suffering from a brain tumor. Narrated by the author, the audio version of the book hits the perfect level of melancholy that evokes empathy rather than pity. McBride also voices her two successive novels, The Lesser Bohemians and Strange Hotel, as well as her nonfiction debut, Something Out of Place.
Ferdia Lennon, born and raised in Dublin, studied History and Classics, and it shows. His debut novel, Glorious Exploits, won Waterstones' Debut Fiction Prize in 2024 and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. In this riotous story set during the Peloponnesian War, two Syracusans, Lampo and Gelon, decide to stage a production of Euripides’ tragedy Medea with some Athenian prisoners of war. This hilarious and heartbreaking story, drawing astute parallels between theater and war, is brought to life by the author’s own skillful narration.
Marian Keyes may have gone to school for accounting but her talents truly lie in her ability to write fun mysteries and thrillers as well as works of contemporary fiction revolving around relatable women. Aoife McMahon narrates Keyes's The Woman Who Stole My Life. In this novel, a beautician named Stella is struck by a serious illness that leaves her hospitalized for months. When she recovers, she discovers that her life has completely changed.
Claire Keegan is lauded for her short stories and novellas, and has won numerous awards, including the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Her novella Small Things Like These was adapted into a feature film in 2024 starring Cillian Murphy. Taking place in 1985 in a small Irish town during the weeks leading up to Christmas, it follows Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery that forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church. It is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of Ireland’s most acclaimed writers.
Kevin Barry is a Limerick-born author of three collections of short stories and four novels. Like his hometown's namesake, Barry has a singular voice and a way with words that places listeners directly in his scenes. His debut novel, City of Bohane, won the International Dublin Literary Award, and his encore, Beatlebone, won the Goldsmiths Prize for fiction that defies conventions. Longlisted for the Booker Prize, Barry’s 2019 novel Night Boat to Tangier followed the twilight years of two aging criminals. His most recent work, The Heart in Winter, is his first novel set in America. A love story of two misfits on the run in 1890s Montana, it is piercingly funny and heart-wrenching, crafted with near-perfect, spare prose, and narrated by Barry himself, who brings humanity and compassion to his flawed, fascinating characters.
Although born and raised in India, Disha Bose moved to Ireland to study creative writing at University College Dublin, and she now lives in Cork. Her debut novel, Dirty Laundry, was chosen as a Good Morning America Book Club selection, and generated no shortage of buzz and acclaim. Dirty Laundry, a twisty domestic thriller, uncovers what happens when a seemingly perfect influencer is murdered and everyone in her small Irish village stands to benefit. The narration by Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan will pull you right into the story.
Sebastian Barry is a Dublin native and a certified mainstay of Irish literature. His status as a Laureate for Irish Fiction and endless awards paint a picture of an author who has had his finger on the pulse of Irish storytelling for a long time. The Secret Scripture is a unique novel even for Barry, centering on Roseanne McNulty, the former celebrated beauty of County Sligo. The novel introduces us to Roseanne as a patient at Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital as her 100th birthday draws near. As she reflects on her life to the hospital staff, it becomes clear that Roseanne's past may be quite different from what she recalls. Wanda McCaddon lends her Irish brogue to a story listeners describe as haunting,
poignant,
and mesmerizing.
A beloved bestselling author of more than 20 novels, Maeve Binchy was born in County Dublin and received Lifetime Achievement Awards at both the Irish and British Book Awards before her death in 2012. Several of her novels have been adapted for the screen, including Tara Road, which was an Oprah's Book Club selection. For the best listening experience, check out her posthumously published novel A Week in Winter, narrated by Caroline Lennon. When Chicky Starr decides to renovate an old mansion overlooking the ocean and turn it into a bed and breakfast, everyone thinks she's batty. But when she opens the doors to visitors, everyone who stays is touched by the place, in one way or another. Lennon's narration captures the mood of the novel to a T, hitting the notes of humor and warmheartedness that are Binchy's signature.
Dervla McTiernan is an Irish crime novelist whose suspenseful mysteries have thrilled countless fans across the globe. She is the acclaimed author of the Dublin-set Cormac Reilly series as well as a number of standalone thrillers, including The Murder Rule and What Happened to Nina? McTiernan has since moved to Australia, which also happens to be where she set The Fireground, a riveting work of fiction that follows orphaned sisters Flynn and Kaiya, both struggling to cope in the wake of their parents' death. When Kaiya finds solace and camaraderie in a climate-action organization, Flynn is grateful her younger sister has found companionship and a cause to dedicate herself to. That is, until Kaiya disappears on a trip with the collective, vanishing after a raging bushfire and leaving Flynn to piece together the truth.
