Dec 24, 2024
Dec 05,2024
The Art of Reading is a monthly book club hosted by Colm Tóibín, the Laureate for Irish Fiction.
Each month, the Laureate meets a different library book club to discuss a book by an Irish writer, highlighting outstanding Irish writing and celebrating the reader and book clubs.
The selected titles celebrate new work by contemporary Irish writers and the latest episode features Colm in conversation with Michael Magee about his acclaimed debut novel, Close to Home. Watch above...
Michael Magee’s first novel deals with the Troubles as both legacy and aftermath. At its centre is Sean who has returned to Belfast. The book has been described by The Guardian as 'a staggeringly humane and tender evocation of class, violence and the challenge of belonging in a world that seems designed to keep you watching from the sidelines.’
Michael Magee is from West Belfast. Close to Home won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. It was also named the Waterstones Irish Book of the Year 2023. He is a graduate of the Creative Writing programme at the Seamus Heaney Centre, Belfast.
The Art of Reading Book Club is an initiative of the Arts Council and the Laureate for Irish Fiction, in partnership with Libraries Ireland. Find out more here.
