Author Name
Author Name
LITERARY, FILM & TV AGENCY
MARIANNE GUNN O'CONNOR
Jan 4, 2023
featured in The Irish Times and Irish Independent Books to look forward to in 2023
Ten MGOC authors
Fiction
THIS PLAGUE OF SOULS by Mike McCormack (Tramp Press, October)
“deals with how we might mend the world – and is the story of a man who would let the world go to hell if he could keep his family together”
The Irish Times
THE HOME SCAR by Kathleen MacMahon (Sandycove, 9th February)
“Her follow-up to the impressive Nothing but Blue Sky. Confronted with the havoc their mother left in her wake, Cassie and Christo are forced to face the messy tangle of parental love and neglect that shaped them”
The Irish Times
Debut Fiction
FALLING ANIMALS by Sheila Armstrong (Bloomsbury Circus, 25th May)
“The debut novel author of the acclaimed story collection, How to Gut a Fish. Told through a chorus of villagers’ voices, it is inspired by the true story of a still-unidentified traveller found dead on Rosses Point beach in Co Sligo in 2009”
The Irish Times
DIRTY LAUNDRY by Disha Bose (Viking 30 March)
“a deliciously scandalous story about the dark side of suburbia, bristling with lies, desire and the secrets that can make or break a marriage”
The Irish Times
“Cork-based Disha Bose is a name soon to be on everyone’s lips after signing a six-figure deal with Viking/Penguin for her debut novel Dirty Laundry (out in March). Described as a domestic noir thriller exploring the dark side of suburbia, Bose worked on the book while undertaking a master’s degree in creative writing at UCD, where she was mentored by Anne Enright. Viking publisher Katy Loftus sums Dirty Laundry up: “It brings to mind the best of the novels about the dark side of suburban life and parenthood —from Little Fires Everywhere to Big Little Lies — but with a take that is completely now.” Bose was born in India and worked for years in the tech industry there and in London before making a pivot to creative writing. Her new career got off to a flying start in 2016 when she was shortlisted for the DNA Short Story Prize”
The Irish Independent
FLING by Joseph Murray (Macmillan, 2nd February)
“At once heartfelt and hilarious, Fling is the story of a fateful – and faithful – affair to remind us all that sometimes what you’re looking for might be closer than you think”
The Irish Times
“A literary soul brother to the likes of Marian Keyes and Beth O’Leary, Joseph Murray is a TikTok comedian-turned romance novel author. After signing with Pan Macmillan, Murray is exploring modern love and dating in a zesty debut titled Fling. When Colin and Tara’s six-year marriage starts to crack, the couple seek to put the spark back into things by using a controversial new dating app, Fling, which purports to introduce people to their ‘100pc match’…Based in the Gaeltacht enclave of Gibbstown in Meath, Murray built a solid TikTok following during the pandemic when he moved home to Ireland from Los Angeles, where he worked as a digital content specialist. He has gained more than 90,000 followers and 3.7 million likes for his comedy sketches. During Covid, he also returned to his first love of storytelling and fiction writing”
The Irish Independent
HOTEL 21 by Senta Rich (Bloomsbury, 27th April)
“already optioned for TV, this is the story of Noelle, who can tidy your hotel room in five minutes but can’t help taking a little “souvenir”. Tidying her life? That’s going to take a team”
The Irish Times
Crime fiction
From the Number 1 bestselling author of Our Little Cruelties and Skin Deep.
“Highlights include STRANGE SALLY DIAMOND by Liz Nugent (Sandycove, 2nd March)”
The Irish Times
Young Adult
A GAME OF LIFE OR DEATH by Triona Campbell (Scholastic 2nd February)
“Ireland punches well over its weight when it comes to delivering YA authors to the world stage, and the latest to join their ranks is Dubliner Triona Campbell. Campbell has already enjoyed a 20-year career in film and TV production. To date, she has been twice nominated for International Emmy Awards, and has won two Kidscreen Awards for her work in young person’s TV programming…
After deciding to undertake a master’s in creative writing, Campbell fell in love with young adult fiction, and has signed a three-book deal with Scholastic, home to Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games) and Jenny Han (To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before). Campbell’s debut, the mystery-thriller A Game Of Life Or Death, has already garnered effusive comparisons to Ready Player One and Black Mirror”
The Irish Independent
Non fiction
DIRTY LINEN by Martin Doyle (Merrion Press, October)
“a personal history of the Troubles, revealing the toll of political and sectarian violence in a parish at the heart of the Linen and Murder Triangles”
The Irish Times
MILK: ON MOTHERHOOD AND MADNESS by Alice Kinsella (Picador, 9th March)
“a memoir charting one woman’s first year of motherhood”
The Irish Times
“A recent Arts Council Next Generation Award recipient, Dublin-born (and Mayo-raised) Alice Kinsella signed with super-agent Marianne Gunn-O’Connor and has already gained a small but fanatical following with her 2019 poetry pamphlet Sexy Fruit. The late Eavan Boland was a supporter of Kinsella’s poetry, noting: “The poems included here are spirited disclosures, ready to come to the threshold of the surreal but also intimate and present in language... The speaker, as in the poems in Flower Press, insists on a charged private space, with every intent of persuading the reader to join her there.” Kinsella’s first book of non-fiction, Milk: On Motherhood and Madness has already been described as “astonishingly evocative”. Here, Kinsella writes of the first year of her son’s life. She details her experiences of giving birth to her child while in her early twenties, all while trying to settle in an unfamiliar new town. With its lyrical power, intimacy and political top-notes, Milk is already being compared to works by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Kerri ní Dochartaigh and Emilie Pine. An English and philosophy graduate from Trinity, Kinsella — now living in Mayo — also has a first-class masters in writing from NUI Galway”
The Irish Independent
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/2022/12/31/books-to-look-forward-to-in-2023/
https://www.independent.ie/life/irelands-rising-stars-the-50-ones-to-watch-in-2023-42248719.html
