This month, we’re paying homage to a host of Irish authors—and authors with strong ties to the Emerald Isle—who contribute to culture in a big way. From literary thrillers to powerful non-fiction to personal family histories, there’s plenty of luck to be found for us all in these audiobooks, no pot of gold required.
Surrender is an intimate, immersive listening experience, telling stories from Bono’s early days in Dublin, to joining a band and playing sold out stadiums around the world with U2, plus his more than 20 years of activism. Surrender also exclusively features clips of newly recorded reimagined versions of U2 songs.
Cal Hooper thought a bucolic Irish village would be the perfect escape after twenty-five years in the Chicago police. But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets.
Patrick Radden Keefe’s mesmerizing account of the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville abduction case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with.
“[Matthew] Blaney’s sober voice is measured and careful, highlighting the subject matter even as he delivers a powerful performance.â€â€”AudioFile
Connell and Marianne grew up in the same small town, but the similarities end there. Connell is popular and Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation something life changing begins. Normal People takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can’t.
Chosen as one of New York Post‘s Best Books of 2022. Dublin, 1966. When Joan Quinn, a factory girl from the Cranmore Estate, marries Martin Egan, it looks like her dreams have come true. But Joan lives in the shadow of a secret—the couple’s decision to give up their first daughter for adoption. Then one day in 1996, a letter arrives. Emma needs her birth parents’ help; it’s a matter of life and death. And the fragile facade of Joan’s life finally begins to crack.
Read by the author. Maeve Higgins was a bestselling author and comedian in her native Ireland when, at the grand old age of thirty-one, she left the only home she’d ever known in search of something more and found herself in New York City. Together, the essays in Maeve in America create a smart, funny, and revealing portrait of a woman who aims for the stars but sometimes hits the ceiling and the inimitable city that helped make her who she is.
Read by the author. Apeirogon is the fruit of a seed planted when the novelist Colum McCann met two fathers who became unlikely friends while on a trip. With their blessing, McCann uses their real-life stories to create a tale both heartbreaking and hopeful.
When the love of her life, Henry, is killed in a freak biking accident, Grace feels like she’s lost her own shadow. In his absence, she must put her world back together: she moves into the Dublin dream house they bought together, she returns to work as a chef, she watches TV with her nosy elderly neighbor. But, through it all, she’s ever aware of the growing Henry-shaped hole in her life. Until his long-lost twin brother knocks on her door.
Read by the author. In this dazzling debut audiobook, award-winning Irish writer Caoilinn Hughes introduces a heroine of mythic proportions in the form of one Gael Foess. A tough, thoughtful, and savvy opportunist, Gael is determined to live life on her own terms amidst economic and familial collapse.
Read by the author. The child of an Irish father and an Irish-American mother who separated soon after he was born, Michael Brendan Dougherty grew up with an acute sense of absence. He loved his mother but longed for his father, who only occasionally returned from Ireland for visits. He began writing letters to his father about what he remembered and what he missed, realizing along the way that his longings were shared by many of his generation. Those letters became this audiobook.
Ciara Dunphy has it all—a loving husband, well-behaved children, and a beautiful home in a small Irish village. A picture-perfect life is easy money on Instagram. Then Ciara is found murdered in her own pristine home. Everyone seems to have something to gain from Ciara’s death, so if they don’t want the blame, it may be the perfect time to air their enemies’ dirty laundry.