Along with St. Patrick's Day, March is also Irish-American heritage month! Celebrate by reading a fiction book set in the Emerald Isle.
A Week in Winter
Binchy, Maeve F Binchy
Follows the efforts of a woman who turns a coastal Ireland mansion into a holiday resort and receives an assortment of first guests who throughout the course of a week share laughter and the heartache of respective challenges.
The Brightest Star in the Sky
Keyes, Marian F Keyes
Seven neighbors in a Dublin townhouse find their lives entangled by the visitation of a sassy and prescient spirit that causes them to rethink their relationships, careers and values.
In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad #1)
French, Tana F French
Twenty years after witnessing the violent disappearances of two companions from their small Dublin suburb, detective Rob Ryan investigates a chillingly similar murder that takes place in the same wooded area, a case that forces him to piece together his traumatic memories.
Series: Dublin Murder Squad novels, 1
Thanks for the Memories
Ahern, Cecelia F Ahern
How can you know someone you've never met? Justin Hitchcock is divorced, lonely and restless. He arrives in Dublin to give a lecture on art and meets an attractive doctor, who persuades him to donate blood. It's the first thing to come straight from his heart in a long time. When Joyce Conway leaves the hospital after a terrible accident, with her life and her marriage in pieces, she moves back in with her elderly father. All the while, a strong sense of dejá vu is overwhelming her and she can't figure out why.
Transatlantic
McCann, Colum F McCann
Spanning 150 years and two continents, this family saga ties Frederick Douglass' 1845 journey to Ireland with the first trans-Atlantic flight made in 1919 by two British aviators and the work of U.S. Senator George Mitchell on the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. These events are also linked to a servant girl named Lily, who in 1846 leaves Dublin for New York.
Nora Webster
Tóibín, Colm F Tóibín
Struggling with grief and financial hardships after the death of her beloved husband, widow Nora struggles to support her four children and clings to secrecy in the intrusive community of her childhood before finding her voice.
The Spinning Heart
Ryan, Donal F Ryan
Narrated by unforgettably distinct characters -- one chapter per character -- who relay some of the same events, this dialect-rich novel follows a small Irish town in the aftermath of the country's financial collapse.
Tipperary
Delaney, Frank F Delaney
Charles O'Brien falls in love with April Burke, a beautiful, much younger Englishwoman, when he offers to help her reclaim and restore her family's Irish estate, in a saga set against the Irish struggle to regain land taken from them by England's colonization.
The Light of Evening
O'Brien, Edna F O'Brien
From her hospital bed in Dublin, the elderly Dilly awaits the visit of her daughter, Eleanora, from London. The epochs of her life pass before her; she also retraces Eleanora's marriage, which alienated mother and daughter, and Dilly's heart-rending letters sent over the years in a determination to reclaim her daughter.
Yesterday's Weather
Enright, Anne F Enright
A collection of short fiction chronicles the lives of ordinary men and women struggling to cope with the bonds of love, family, and community, in an increasingly disconnected, transient, and changing Ireland.
The Yellow House
Falvey, Patricia F Falvey
The story of a fiery young woman fighting to reunite her family and reclaim their ancestral home during the war for Irish Independence.
Of Irish Blood
Kelly, Mary Pat F Kelly
Fleeing a crushing affair to return to the Old World her family fled, Nora Kelly joins the Left Bank society of early 20th-century Paris, where she becomes a revolutionary in the struggle to free Ireland.
Secrets of the Lighthouse
Montefiore, Santa F Montefiore
Fleeing a hated job and a fiance she does not love, Ellen visits her aunt's cottage on the wild Irish coast of Connemara and becomes engrossed in a local tragedy involving a young mother's death in a lighthouse fire, while the ghost of the victim watches over her family and mourns her lost future.
Saint Brigid's Bones: a Celtic Adventure
Freeman, Philip F Freeman
In an evocative Celtic novel set in a time when druids roamed the land, lively young sister Deirdre embarks on a mission to find the stolen bones of her convent's patron saint.
Christine Falls
Black, Benjamin F Black
Returning to the morgue where he works after an office party, Dublin pathologist Quirke stumbles across a body that should not have been there, as well as his brother-in-law, pediatrician Malachy Griffin, altering a file to cover up the corpse's cause of death.
Series: Quirke mysteries, 1
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Joyce, James F Joyce
Stephen Dedalus, a sensitive and creative youth, rebels against his family, his education, and his country by committing himself to the artist's life
The Best of Frank O'Connor
O'Connor, Frank F O'Connor
The most generous one-volume collection ever published of short stories, autobiographical writings, poetry, and essays by the writer Yeats called “Ireland’s Chekhov.”
Plus one for good luck!
Irish Fairy and Folk Tales
Edited by Yeats, W. B. 398.20941 Iri
Includes tales of fairies, changelings, ghosts, witches, saints, the devil, giants, kings, queens, and robbers.
