Books by Anne Enright
The Gathering
by Anne Enright
In Enright's Booker Prize-winning novel, a group of Irish siblings gather for the wake for their wayward brother Liam. A thoughtful and sometimes darkly funny saga of a dysfunctional family.
“It’s an intergenerational saga set in Ireland, exploring the really messy, fraught relationship between Carmel and her daughter Nell. They’ve moved from being a very close single-mother, only-daughter unit to having quite a fractured relationship. It also encompasses the long shadow thrown over their family by Carmel’s father, Phil, who is now deceased but was a famous poet. Through Phil, Anne Enright raises a lot of questions about art. For instance: is it possible to separate the art and the artist? If the person who has produced the art has done terrible things in their life, does that affect how you view that art?” Read more...
Recent Fiction Highlights: The 2024 Women’s Prize Shortlist
Monica Ali, Novelist
“It is just the most beautifully written story in which a middle-aged woman talks about the life of her mother, who was an actress. It’s told in such a clever way. It’s so credible. It reads like true account. I certainly recognise references to characters and real people in the book, who would have been on the Irish theatrical scene throughout those decades.” Read more...
The Best Contemporary Irish Novels
Liz Nugent, Novelist
“I came late to Anne Enright and wish I’d found her earlier.” Read more...
Daisy Johnson on Books That Influenced Her
Daisy Johnson, Novelist
Interviews where books by Anne Enright were recommended
Daisy Johnson on Books That Influenced Her
Daisy Johnson—short story writer, novelist, and the youngest author to be shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize—chooses the five books that most inspired her novel Everything Under and shares some of her writing rituals and philosophy.
Books by Irish Authors
Home to the Blarney Stone — said to bestow “the gift of the gab” — and with a long tradition of valuing bards and wandering storytellers, it is no surprise that Ireland has produced some of the most recognised names in the English language canon. Considering the small population, Irish authors continue to punch well above their weight in publishing. Here we bring you a selection of Irish authors that have been recommended on Five Books by experts, from bestselling and award-winning contemporary writers to both famous and less well-known classic authors.
The Best Contemporary Irish Novels, recommended by Liz Nugent
Bestselling author Liz Nugent talks to Five Books about the Irish writers that have been taking the world by storm in recent years—as she selects five unmissable recent works of Irish contemporary fiction, including books by Anne Enright and Sebastian Barry.
Recent Fiction Highlights: The 2024 Women’s Prize Shortlist, recommended by Monica Ali
Each summer, the judges for the Women’s Prize for Fiction highlight the best new fiction books by female writers published over the previous twelve months. We asked Monica Ali, the acclaimed novelist and chair of this year’s jury, to talk us through the six novels that made the 2024 shortlist. See all our best novels of 2024 recommendations
Booker Prize-Winning Novels
As we know that many of our readers like to work their way through the list of Booker-winners, we’ve compiled an overview the winning titles from the last two decades.
