Roddy Doyle and Donal Ryan – Last tickets remaining! in conversation with Alex Clark

Join us for a special afternoon as two of Ireland’s master storytellers will be in conversation with critic, journalist and broadcaster Alex Clark about their new novels. Roddy Doyle’s The Women Behind the Door (Jonathan Cape) is a powerful, moving mother-daughter story of struggle, secrets, regrets, reparations and reconciliations. Donal Ryan’s Heart, Be at Peace (Doubleday) returns to a familiar rural town, where the peace of the community is shattered, in this lyrically told story of love and hope in the face of menace. 

Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of twelve acclaimed novels including The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van and Smile, two collections of short stories, and Rory & Ita, a memoir about his parents. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

© Manon Gilbart

Donal Ryan is an award-winning author from Nenagh, County Tipperary, whose work has been published in over twenty languages to major critical acclaim.  The Spinning Heart  won the Guardian First Book Award, the EU Prize for Literature (Ireland), and Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards; it was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize, and was voted ‘Irish Book of the Decade’. His fourth novel, From a Low and Quiet Sea, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2018, and won the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature. His novel, Strange Flowers, was voted Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, and was a number one bestseller, as was his most recent novel  The Queen of Dirt Island, which was also shortlisted for Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. Donal lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. He lives with his wife Anne Marie and their two children just outside Limerick City.

© Mark Vessey

Alex Clark is a critic, journalist and broadcaster. A co-host of Graham Norton’s Book Club and the Times Literary Supplement podcast, she is also a regular on BBC Radio 4 and writes on a wide range of subjects for the Guardian, the Observer and the Irish Times. She is a patron of the Cambridge Literary Festival, and has judged many literary awards, including the Booker prize. She is an experienced chair of live events, and lives in Kilkenny, Ireland.