Top Irish Fiction Novels 2022

Again, Rachel by Marian Keys

‘In her twenties, Rachel Walsh was a mess. Since her spell in rehab, though, she’s come a long way on the road to recovery – and now, she’s ready to go back to where it all began. But this time, the student has become the teacher. She used to hate the staff in charge of treating her addiction. Now, she’s one of them. Rachel’s finally got herself on track – but life never stops being messy. And when an old flame resurfaces, will she return to who she once was? Or at fifty, can she find herself all over again?’

The Queen Of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan

‘The Aylward women are mad about each other, but you wouldn’t always think it. Despite what the neighbours might say about raised voices and dramatic scenes, you’d have to know them to know that their house is a place of peace, filled with love, a refuge from the sadness and cruelty of the world. Their story begins at an end and ends at a beginning. It’s a story of a terrible betrayal, fierce loyalties, isolation and togetherness, transgression, forgiveness, desire, and love. About all the things a family can be and all the things it sometimes isn’t. More than anything, it is an uplifting celebration of fierce, loyal love and the powerful stories that last generations.’

Idol by Louise O’Neill

‘For Samantha Miller’s young fans – her ‘girls’ – she’s everything they want to be. She’s an oracle, telling them how to live their lives, be happy, and find and honour their ‘truth’. And her career is booming: she’s just hit three million followers, her new book Chaste has gone straight to the top of the bestseller lists, and she appears at sell-out events. Determined to speak her truth and bare all to her adoring fans, she’s written an essay about her sexual awakening as a teenager with her female best friend, Lisa. She’s never told a soul, but now she’s telling the world. The essay goes viral. But then – years since they last spoke – Lisa gets in touch to say that she doesn’t remember it that way. Her memory of that night is far darker. It’s Sam’s word against Lisa’s – so who gets to tell the story? Whose ‘truth’ is a lie?’

Homesickness by Colin Berrett

‘In these eight stories, Barrett takes us back to the barren backwaters of County Mayo via Toronto and illuminates the lives of outcasts, misfits and malcontents with an eye for the abrupt and absurd. A quiet night in the neighbourhood pub is shattered by the arrival of a sword-wielding fugitive. A funeral party teeters on the edge of this world and the next, as ghosts won’t simply lay in wake. A shooting sees an everyday call-out lead a policewoman to confront the banality of her existence.’

All the Broken Places by John Boyne

‘All the Broken Places is John Boyne’s masterful sequel to his classic bestseller, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, taking a character from that novel on a journey to a place she never goes – the past. Through her story, he explores the aftermath of the war and the effects of a lifetime of guilt.’

Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen

‘It is the summer of 1994, and the Ceasefire has just been announced. In a small town on the Irish border, Maeve and her two friends have just secured summer jobs in the local shirt factory. They plan to make as much money as possible while waiting for their A Level results before getting out of town and away to the UK. As the summer progresses and the marching season begins, tensions in the factory rise between the Catholic and Protestant workforce, and events escalate, putting Maeve’s chance of escape in jeopardy.’