Best Irish Fiction since 2000
On Saturday the Irish Times featured ‘The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century’ [subscribers]. As Books Editor Martin Doyle wrote,
Mindful of the knowledge that any verdict is only as trustworthy as the calibre of the jurors, I invited more than 60 authors, critics, academics, booksellers and festival curators to submit their favourite Irish novels or short story collections of the century so far, either titles they loved or ones they felt were too significant to overlook.
I was one of the 60 (see below), and when making my initial selection was immediately struck by the sheer range and quality of what Irish writers have produced in the last 25 years. Truly, it is a vibrant culture. I recently wrote about David Marcus: Editing Ireland, and Marcus was surely a significant figure in the development of this success.
In the final list, the top five were Milkman by Anna Burns, That They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern, Solar Bones by Mike McCormack, Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, and Foster by Claire Keegan - all titles very high in my own ranking too.
