The Irish Challenge

Ireland holds a very dear place in my heart, and this year is especially important to me for reasons known to some of you.

So, with all the challenges that I am reading about in the blogs I follow, I thought I had to add a new one to my list, THE IRISH CHALLENGE!

It makes a lot of sense to me for two main reasons. First, I read a lot during that school year (not much else to do in the cold, rainy evenings in Enniskillen ;) Second, Ireland is “land of literature”, with its four Nobel Prizes for Literature.

The idea is to decide on a number of books/novels to read that are somehow related to Ireland- author, setting, subject matter.

Here are some ideas:

Big names

The four Nobel prizes:

 W.B. Yeats, G.B. Shaw, Samuel Becket and Seamus Heaney

And, of course, Oscar Wilde (I lived in the same boarding school quarters- Portora Royal School- in my first month in Ireland! Exciting-and somehow creepy), James Joyce, Lady Gregory, Bram Stoker, Jonathan Swift.

Contemporary authors:

Frank McCourt, Aidan Higgins, John Connolly, Christina McKenna, Robert McLiam Wilson

Chick lit, which I especially enjoy reading in English because of the colourful vocabulary and everyday expressions that can be learnt:

Cecilia Ahern, Marian Keyes, Niamh Green (haven’t read anything by Green but have heard a lot about her lately, so she’s on my list)

Spanish authors writing about Ireland:

Ana B. Nieto: La Huella Blanca (haven’t seen it in English yet)

Angel Gil Cheza: La lluvia es una canción sin letra/ Rain is a song without lyrics( 0.89E on Amazon for Kindle!)

Tu nombre después de la lluvia ( if I had to mark it, I would give it a 7 or a 8)

Mari Pau Domínguez: La tumba del irlandés (haven’t seen it in English)

North-American writer Susanne Moore has written The Life of Objects, whose main character is Irish.

I think I'll go for 5. Already read 1!