DID YOU SPEND much of 2017 with your nose buried in a book? Were there short story collections you devoured, novels you loved or nonfiction you treasured?
It was a fantastic year for female protagonists in particular, with Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends and Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant Is Really Fine bringing us the nuanced stories of complicated and interesting women.
Here in Ireland, we saw how great homegrown writing was at the Irish Book Awards in November, with big winners including Marian Keyes (for The Break), Atlas of the Irish Revolution, Ruth Fitzmaurice‘s I Found My Tribe, and Philly McMahon‘s The Choice.
Another big Irish winner overall this year was Tramp Press, which saw writer Sara Baume nominated for a Goldsmith’s Prize and Mike McCormack‘s book Solar Bones – originally published by Tramp – longlisted for a Booker Prize. Little Island Books published some very up-to-date Irish fiction for young people, like Jane Mitchell‘s A Dangerous Crossing, which was about a young Syrian boy; and the Declaration of the Rights of Boys and Girls.
Other popular Irish books included The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne, I Am, I A, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell, and To Be A Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death by Mark O’Connell.
Outside of Ireland, books like Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout and Tin Man by Sarah Winman were hits with readers.
Here’s what we enjoyed reading in 2017 – tell us your favourites in the comments.
Fionnuala Jones
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Sweetman
Help by Simon Amstell
Christine Bohan
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, The Sympathiser by Viet Thanh Nguyen and The Nix by Nathan Hill.
Aoife Barry
Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney, Oh My God, What A Complete Aisling by Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen, and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Sweetman.
Paul Hosford
The Choice by Philly McMahon, We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Grant by Ron Chernow, Turtles All The Way Down by John Green.
Susan Daly
Room Little Darker by June Caldwell and Grace by Paul Lynch.
Peter Bodkin
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann.
What were your favourites? Tell us in the comments to be part of our readers’ roundup.
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